As I write, we are six weeks into the UK’s lockdown and any walk beyond the local park seems now a distant memory. What better time to relive favourite walks and look forward to the time when we’re able to put on our boots and explore our beautiful country once more.
As with my past top ten, these are all walks I have done, and it’s a totally subjective choice. This time I’ve limited it to the UK and you’ll see that the majority are in the north and west where our biggest hills, lakes and mountains lie.
10. Ash ranges, Surrey
The Ash ranges are a well kept secret, not least because they are used by the Ministry of Defence most of the year for training purposes. But bank holiday weekends, usually, they are open all day and the last two years I’ve taken advantage of that to visit.
What a marvellous revelation they are. Unspoilt, beautiful – and when I have visited- largely empty, they are a wonderful example of Surrey heaths, and remind me of a sort of New Forest or even Scottish landscape. But they are between Guildford and Aldershot, just an hour from central London.
There’s a great walk around and across the ranges which takes all day and is highly recommended..
9. Claife Heights, Windermere, Cumbria
This one’s in the heart of the Lake District, starting on the banks of Windermere, but not going to any of the big fell tops. You catch the ferry from Bowness, close to the hugely popular Beatrix Potter cottage, but leave all the tourists behind with a short sharp climb to a sylvan landscape of woods and moss, pools and flowers.
Climbing further you get some wonderful views of Windermere. You can head back down to the banks, but I chose to walk down into Hawkshead village.
8. Cheviots, Northumberland
I first heard of the Cheviots as a child, doing and redoing a jigsaw I had of the British Isles. It took me another 50 years to make it there, and what a landscape. The scale is breathtaking, with 360 views of the grandiose hills that from the border between England and Scotland.
My friend Keith and I were in the third year of our walk along the Pennine way, a walk that in the past had something of a fearsome reputation for boggy marshes. We loved it, and were incredibly lucky all three years with September weather.
Yes it was boggy in places, but a lot has now been sympathetically surfaced with reused paving stones from old mills, which both make the walking easier, but somehow look as if they have always been there. There are lots of other highlights, including Cross Fell , High Cup Nick and Teasdale and it’s a tough walk, but well worth it. The last days on the England/ Scotland border are stunning. There’s a particular part near the end, aptly named Windy Gyle, where you nearly get blown off your feet!
7. Lochaber and Nevis Forest, near Fort William, Scotland
Shortly after Jeni and I were married, we embarked on the West Highland Way. It wasn’t exactly a honeymoon- we’d already had that- and the fact that Jeni has yet to do another long distance walk with me since tells you it wasn’t quite her thing. But we’re still married, 23 years later!
The last day of the West Highland Way is a long tough one, and we began in rain, then mist before the sun came out and it was really quite warm- a typical mix of Scottish weather. You start in Kinlochleven, an old aluminium smelting town, and climb out of the town through the forest, before walking high in the sheep hills. You go through deer country and then Nevis forest eventually descending into Fort William. When we did it we were the last people of the day and due to a misunderstanding our B and B reservation had been given up for someone else. Luckily the landlady booked us another place a few doors down as we were done in after walking about 18 miles.
6. Ennerdale Water, Cumbria
This is in the less explored western side of the Lake District and had it not been for Alfred Wainwright’s coast to coast walk, this walk may have stayed little known too. Wainwright bemoaned the plantations that had taken over the valley beyond Ennerdale, but I quite liked them, although I hear that they are now being thinned out or removed.
Ennerdale is beautiful, and beyond that going east, there’s a flat valley section, the part that was wooded when I was there nearly 20 years ago now. Passing Black sail hut, the most remote youth hostel in England, there’s a stiff climb north followed by an amazing rocky plateau with breathtaking views in every direction.
So lovely that I lingered here too long and arrived very late at my accommodation that night in Rosthwaite, nearly missing dinner.
5. The Brandy Pad, Mourne mountains, Northern Ireland
I did this walk with my daughter Rachel, and on the whole I think she really enjoyed it , bar a little bit near the top where it was quite blowy and what happened at the end….
The landscape is reminiscent of the Lake District, but it’s in the compact range of small mountains, the Mournes , on the east coast of Northern Ireland, near Newcastle. I’d done some walking in the Wicklow mountains, south of Dublin, but this was the first time we’d walked in the north and it was beautiful, and I think to many, is much lesser known.
Unfortunately the walk didn’t end quite how we’d imagined. With the path totally blocked behind a drystone wall by Highland cattle, we took what looked like a decent path, albeit marked prominently with ‘Private: keep out’ signs. Then we were accosted by a quite intimidating family of donkeys, had to climb over a wall covered in barbed wire and glass, before being shouted at by an intimidating Ulster farmer who seemed ready to get his shotgun out had his wife not already let us through! By the time we got to the pub and were telling the rest of the family the length of the Highland cattle’s horns had grown in my imagination, as if they were Texan longhorns. Rachel never lets me forget that!
4. Galloway forest park, Scotland
The borders of Scotland , and the long distance coast to coast walk across them, the Southern Upland Way, are a largely undiscovered delight. Choosing a day walk from fifteen days walking along the route is difficult, but I this was certainly one of my favourites, if not the best, from Bargrennan along Loch Trool to Clatteringshaws.
Galloway forest park is a beautiful area and in May it was at its best. We picnicked by the loch and passed onto another loch, Loch Dee, before being met at Clatteringshaws loch. Without this it would have been a very long day, but we were able to resume the next day from the same spot.
The Southern Upland Way is much underrated and one of the UK’s very best long distance trails.
3. Rannoch moor, Scotland
The first time I saw Rannoch moor my jaw dropped. I wish I had been a professional photographer and able to capture the sheer desolate beauty of it that June evening, after heavy rain, with dark clouds as my friend Ben and I drove across it on my very first visit to Scotland in 1992.
Since then Jeni and I have walked across it, on the West Highland Way, and taken the sleeper train from Euston across it several times, and that wonder has never left me. Whether you take the road, walk or take the train, all three routes are worth doing and I’m sure I’ll be back.
We ended our walk across Rannoch Moor at the Kingshouse hotel, a stopping place since the days of Wordsworth, and at the time of our visit somewhat ramshackle and quirky, but in stunning scenery, with deer coming down to feed on scraps in the evening. I hear the hotel has been redeveloped now, but I hope it keeps some of the atmosphere.
2. Haystacks, Cumbria
Unlike some of the others, this is a firm favourite with many , and you won’t have it to yourself. But I can see why it was Alfred Wainwright’s top fell, and he should know. His ashes are scattered there. It’s a stiff climb, but worth it. After the top there are series of beautiful tarns, before descending to Buttermere, which you can see from the top.
It’s close to Ennerdale and Honister ( and my number 6 walk above) and has stunning views.
1. Achnashellach, Scotland
I have an old friend, Dave Kincaid, to thank for this one. He told me about it years ago, singing its praises, and he wasn’t wrong. Staying at the beautiful village of Plockton a few stops down on the railway, I caught an early morning train to the ( request ) stop of Achnashellach. There’s a couple of houses there and then you’re straight into the wilderness. In the early morning, with dew glistening on the bracken, it was magical. You climb up and then it’s an easy circuit down along forest tracks.
The view keeps changing. But it’s all beautiful. And then you loop back to the station. Although you have to make sure of your times as there are only three or four trains a day and you have to clearly signal to the driver.
Well, that’s my selection. Lots of great walks, but lots I had to leave out. Can’t wait to get the boots on again!
Across the Alps to the Adriatic 