The Pennine Way is a designated UK National Trail in the north of England, coursing for 268 miles / 429 km from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders. The Pennines are the mountain ridge forming the backbone of the country, and most of the route is across Yorkshire, County Durham, Cumbria and Northumberland.

Understand

Now imagine it after two days' rain

The path was the idea of the journalist and rambler Tom Stephenson (1893-1987), inspired by long-distance trails in the United States, particularly the Appalachian Trail. Stephenson proposed it in the Daily Herald in 1935, following the 1932 mass trespass of Kinder Scout to assert the rights of hikers against private land-owners. He became Secretary of the Ramblers' Association and tirelessly lobbied Parliament for the creation of a trail, and the Pennine Way was officially opened on 24 April 1965.

Although not the longest of the UK's long-distance paths, it's the best known and one of the most demanding. It follows the crest of the Pennines, the chain of moors and hills running north–south to form the backbone of northern England, then continues along the Cheviots. It crosses Yorkshire, County Durham, Cumbria and Northumberland, with short terminal stretches south in Derbyshire and north in the Scottish Borders.

The route is usually followed south to north, so you tend to have the wind at your back, and most travel guides (including this one) are written in this direction. Most hikers take three weeks - since 2021 the record is 2 days, 10 hours, 4 minutes, 53 sec. Those living within a short travel distance can treat it as a weekend stroll, doing there-and-back stretches from a convenient car park until they cover the entire route.

Prepare

Bleaklow is well-named

Although it's waymarked and requires no specialist mountaineering or climbing skills, walking the Pennine Way requires reasonable fitness, appropriate clothing and boots, adequate navigation skills, and above all sheer cussed tenacity. Few sections are suitable for mountain bikes or horseback, so you have to hike it. Winter can be misery, with flooded brooks, snow covering the trail, and low visibility. Accommodation is limited so if you're not wild-camping, you'd best book in advance, though this commits you to a particular distance per day, come sun or rain or blisters. The last day is a 25-mile trudge along the ridge of the Cheviots from Byrness to Kirk Yetholm, though it's possible to split this into two or three.

National Trails publish a route description. Maps are essential: OS Landranger Maps (1:50,000) are the best to use, and the appropriate sheets are stated below.

Get in

There are multiple access points, described below, many though by no means all with public transport. The trail officially starts at The Nags Head pub in Edale, on the railway between Sheffield and Manchester.

Walk

South Pennines

Map: Use OS Landranger 110 from Edale through Marsden onto Standedge.

• 1 Edale (mile 0) has hourly trains between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield, and the official start of the trail is The Nag's Head half a mile north of the railway station. Edale is in the limestone scenery of the Peak District, but the trail turns its back on this at the outset, to traverse the bleak soggy gritstone plateaux of South and West Yorkshire.

• There are two initial routes, which can combine into a circular walk for a day-trip. The traditional route is to ascend Kinder Scout immediately up Grind's Brook, then head northwest across the plateau. The alternative, more scenic and less boggy, is west across the fields to ascend by Jacob's Ladder, then north along the scarp edge. The two routes meet at Kinder Downfall, from where you trudge north gradually descending. The plateau is crossed by A57 but with no nearby facilities, so you continue north over Bleaklow before the last descent into Longdendale, with a zigzag around the reservoir to reach Crowden. The route is well marked and has flagstones over the worst bogs. 16 miles done, only 254 to go. You can look forward to similar terrain all the way to Gargrave in North Yorkshire, where the route re-enters limestone scenery in the Yorkshire Dales.

• 2 Crowden (mile 16) has a couple of B&Bs. It's on A628 but has virtually no public transport. The route continues north up a steep side valley onto Sliddens Moss. At the top of Black Hill (582 m) you leave Derbyshire for West Yorkshire. Descend Wessenden Head Moor to A635, where there's nothing but bleak plateau, so persevere down the valley ahead. The scenery improves approaching Marsden past the reservoirs, where the route turns west towards Standedge.

• 3 Marsden (14 miles from Crowden) is a couple of miles off the Pennine Way but it has accommodation and other amenities, to break up a very long stage. It has trains and buses between Manchester and Huddersfield. Return to the route either by retracing your steps past the reservoirs, or follow the lane west to reach Standedge. Somewhere beneath these moors is a busy railway tunnel and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

• Standedge is a long escarpment, the edge of the gritstone plateau, trending northwest and marking the boundary with Greater Manchester. The route follows it, with views down into Oldham and Rochdale until the drizzle thickens.

Map: use OS Landranger 109 from crossing A640 to Cowpe Moss approaching Todmorden.

From A640 descend Saddleworth Moor to A672 and M62. A footbridge soars over the cutting of the motorway hurrying down to Manchester. This bleak expanse was the favoured dumping ground of the 1960s "Moors murderers" Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. They sexually assaulted children then cut their throats: two of the bodies were never found.

Blackstone Edge

• Blackstone Edge is the northern continuation of the escarpment. Follow it to the Aigin Stone then bear slightly west to reach A58. Nothing here, you could head downhill 2 miles west for accommodation at Littleborough, but you may as well trudge onward into Calderdale. The route here follows a reservoir catchment channel. Stoodley Pike Monument is the 121 ft / 37 m stone tower ahead, commemorating victory over Napoleon in 1815. You could branch north here to descend steeply into Todmorden, though the standard route stays on the escarpment above the valley to reach Hebden Bridge.

• 4 Todmorden (14 miles from Marsden) is a former mill town, now in West Yorkshire though it has been back-and-forth with Lancashire. It has accommodation, and public transport between Manchester, Burnley and Halifax. You could rejoin the route by taking the canal towpath northeast.

Map: use OS Landranger 103 from Todmorden to Airton.

• 5 Hebden Bridge (5 miles from Todmorden) was originally bypassed by the Pennine Way, but in 2015 a loop was added to take it in. It's another former mill town with accommodation and public transport. Heptonstall is an attractive village just north, with cottages and steep cobbled streets like a Hovis advert.

The Calder is one of several east-flowing rivers that here dissect the gritstone plateau. These created transport routes and fast-descending streams to power mills, so the post-industrial valley floor is in sharp contrast to the moors above. The Pennine Way becomes busier and is criss-crossed by other routes, as it's close to large cities and suitable for weekend strolls with children and muddy dogs in tow. The route onward is via Heptonstall onto the moor, descending at Widdop then along Walshaw Dean Reservoir northeast to ascend the next moor.

Heathcliff and Catherine were entranced to find Wuthering Heights was in Bradford

• Brontë Country is the area associated with those literary sisters, who lived at Haworth, and Brontë Way is a 43 mile east-west trail across it. The ruin of Top Withens Farm shortly after the 450 m crest of this section brings two surprises: that anyone should see any resemblance to Wuthering Heights, which it supposedly inspired, and that these windy expanses are within the city limits of Bradford. The route descends steeply to the foot of Ponden Reservoir (mile 59 in total) but most walkers will branch east for 3 miles to reach Haworth.

• 6 Haworth is very touristy with its Brontë connections. It's a large village with accommodation and good transport - a steam train runs regularly from Keighley. Return to the reservoir and strike northwest over Oakworth Moor to enter the district of Craven in North Yorkshire.

• 7 Cowling is a straggling village with accommodation along A6068. The route continues northwest over the tail end of the south Pennines, through Lothersdale, Thornton-in-Craven and East Marton. Few facilities there, so press on towards Gargrave through pastoral country, a welcome change from moors and peat bogs.

Aire Gap divides the south and north Pennines, a low-level corridor between the Aire and Ribble valleys. The Leeds-Liverpool canal takes advantage of this gap, navigable throughout with a good towpath for walking or cycling, and you could join it at East Marton for a more higgledy-piggledy route into Gargrave.

North Pennines

The next 40 miles is the most scenic of the entire route, through karstic crags and Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Gargrave

• 8 Gargrave would be a pleasant village if only it had a bypass, but it's pounding with traffic on A65. Buses and trains run to Skipton if you can't find accommodation here. The main sight is the ladder of locks carrying the canal towards its summit. Pennine Way heads northwest, cutting over Eshton Moor and back into the Aire valley at Airton, thence north to Malham.

Map: use OS Landranger 98 from Airton through Hawes to Thwaite and Keld.

• 9 Malham (mile 83) has accommodation and a sporadic bus to Skipton. Malham Cove is the amphitheatre-like cliff face at the head of the valley. Scramble up this onto the limestone plateau, where a side trail east loops back to Malham via Gordale Scar. Continuing north, the route is by Malham Tarn onto Fountains Fell. Descend this steeply west onto paved farm lanes.

• Pen-y-Ghent rushes at you like the prow of an oncoming aircraft carrier. This is a slab of gritstone rising to 694 m / 2277 ft, atop a base of limestone riddled with sinkholes and caves. Scramble up its prow onto the plateau, grateful that you're not today doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge, the mountain-running circuit from Horton that also takes in Whernside (736 m / 2415 ft) and Ingleborough (723 m / 2372 ft). Since 1974 the record is a shade under 2 hr 30 min, but as the celebrated Alfred Wainwright put it, "this is to be greatly regretted, walking is a pleasure to be enjoyed in comfort". Descend south to Horton.

The amphitheatre of Malham Cove

• 10 Horton-in-Ribblesdale (mile 97) has accommodation and is on the road and railway from Leeds and Skipton to Settle, Lancaster and Kirby Lonsdale. The next leg is mostly on farm lanes, reasonably firm and obvious to navigate. Follow the lane out of Horton for a mile along the east flank of the valley then bear left at the fork. It's co-signed as "Ribble Way" for another mile, diverging at Birkwith. Skirt Cam Fell to come onto the long flank of Dodd Fell. At its north end, the trail short-cuts over the nose of the ridge to descend into Gayle. In poor viz or wet conditions, stay on the farm lane to come into Hawes.

• 11 Hawes (mile 111) is a large village with accommodation and a museum. Gayle is its extension southwest, with a creamery making Wensleydale cheese, and a restored 18th century mill. Infrequent buses run from Leyburn and from Garsdale (on the Leeds-Settle-Carlisle railway) to Hawes and Gayle.

The karstic scenery is behind you now, so it's back to brown heath and moor. Take the public road to Hardraw, pausing to see the waterfall. A farm lane then ascends northwest up the long ridge of Great Shunner, with the scars of old mine workings. The route beyond the lane has flagstones to curb erosion. Great Shunner summit at 716 m / 2349 ft would command views of Wensleydale, Ribblesdale, Swaledale and beyond, if only you'd come on a fine day. The descent trends northeast to come into Thwaite, a side valley of Swaledale, the most northerly of the Yorkshire Dales. Accommodation straggles along B6270 into Keld, while the route flanks the dale.

Pen-y-ghent

Map: use OS Landranger 91 from Keld through Middleton and Dufton to Cross Fell.

• 12 Keld (mile 124) is a tiny place but its accommodation includes yurts, the prospect of which has kept you going all this way. A couple of waterfalls are within a mile of the village. The route onward is along the flank of Stonesdale Moor, with the lane a bail-out option below.

• 13 Tan Hill Inn is 4½ miles north of Keld. At 528 m / 1732 ft it's Britain’s highest public house, and marginally within North Yorkshire on the boundary with County Durham. It was once the social centre of a mining village, but all of that has been cleared away leaving the pub in stark moorland isolation. It has accommodation, which you might need - the pub is sometimes cut off for days by bad weather, most recently in 2021.

The route descends northeast over Sleightholme Moor, again with the lane as a bail-out, then turns north to cross God's Bridge, a natural limestone slab.

• 14 Bowes is a village at the junction of A66 with A67. It has accommodation and a crumbly castle, but what it doesn't have is the Bowes Museum - that collection of bling and finery is 3 miles up A67 at Barnard Castle. To continue, back-track west for a mile on farm lanes to God's Bridge. You need your wits about you crossing A66, especially in poor visibility, as traffic blats along. The route crosses Cotherstone Moor then descends to the reservoirs in Baldersdale. Hereabouts in 954 AD Eric Bloodaxe was murdered, according to the Viking saga Eiríksmál:

As the deity Odin put it, "Hvat þrymr þar Bragi, sem þúsund bifisk eða mengi til mikit?"

to which Bragi replied "Braka öll bekkþili, sem muni Baldr koma eptir í Óðins sali."

Between them they pretty-much summed up the local weather, turbid streams and A66 traffic.

No amenities in Baldersdale so ascend the next moor via Hannah's Meadows. Hannah Hauxwell (1926-2018) farmed these acres for over 50 years, mostly single-handed and hewing to age-old methods, so the pasture retained an eco-system swept away elsewhere. It's a riot of wild flowers in early summer, and is managed by a wildlife trust. But Hannah's life was hard labour in poverty and biting winter winds, lacking electricity until the media discovered her in 1972.

Cross the low moor to the reservoirs in the next side valley and head northeast into Middleton. Since Tan Hill all the drainage has been into the Tees catchment rather than down the Yorkshire Dales, and you now join the scenic main valley.

You could be stuck for days at Tan Hill Inn

• 15 Middleton-in-Teesdale (mile 143) is a large village with accommodation and a bus from Barnard Castle. The Tees and its tributaries descend from the moors over a series of hard dolerite ridges, forming waterfalls, and the route stays in the valley to visit these. Be on the southwest riverbank, with the lane to Holwick as a bail-out. Three miles upstream, Low Force is a cascade rather than a waterfall.

• High Force is five miles upstream from Middleton, a drop of 21 m / in two stages, foaming and steaming after rainfall. Hiking this way on the southwest bank means you see it free. Most visitors drive up B6277 on the northeast bank, and they have to pay for access, if they can manage to park. The route stays on the southwest bank before crossing to Forest-in-Teesdale. You might lay over here before the long windy hike to Dufton.

• Cauldron Snout is a long cascade below Cow Green Reservoir, reached along the Tees north bank from Forest, or by a longer loop of public lane. This reservoir was an environmental cause célèbre in the 1960s when it submerged two square miles of rare sub-arctic habitat. But the water was needed for the population and industries of lower Teesside and demonstrated that no terrain in Britain was sacrosanct.

The reservoir marks the boundary of County Durham crossing into Cumbria. An alternative route north is by the access lane then into the valley of the South Tyne towards Alston, scenically a world away from the Tyne's urban lower reaches. However the Pennine Way trends west along Maize Beck. Here and throughout Cumbria you must pay heed to the red flags of Army training ranges, but these don't impinge on the footpath. The "waterfall" marked on the map is a drop all of 20 cm, there ought to be a law against this sort of thing.

• High Cup Nick is a ravine at the west edge of the upper Tees plateau, the head of a U-shaped valley. Stay on its north rim then descend by farm lanes into Dufton.

High Force in spate

• 16 Dufton (mile 164) is a small village with accommodation, set in lowland fields and once a centre for lead mining. It's three miles north of Appleby, best known for its gypsy horse fair, and standing on A66 and the Leeds-Carlisle railway.

Ascend north onto Knock Fell (794 m / 2606 ft) then make switchback progress along the escarpment to Great Dun Fell (848 m / 2762 ft, with bail-out access by an old miners' lane), Little Dun Fell (842 m / 2782 ft) and Cross Fell, which at 893 m / 2930 ft is the highest point on the entire Pennine Way. It's been worth all the toil just to be able in future to confidently answer that pub quiz question.

The descent of Cross Fell is initially boggy then joins a farm lane heading northeast, so you make good progress down into Garrigill, where the alternative route from Cow Green rejoins. This tiny village has accommodation, but another 4 miles down the South Tyne valley brings you to Alston with more.

Map: use OS Landranger 86 from Garrigill to Hadrian's Wall and Bellingham.

Fell race above High Cup Nick

• 17 Alston is a former mining village - lead was the main ore, with a valuable side-yield of silver and zinc. That meant a profusion of pubs, which disappeared along with the mines in the 20th century, but there's accommodation and a heritage railway.

The route stays at low altitude along the flanks of the South Tyne valley, always close to A689 until that veers away towards Brampton. Cross Hartleyburn Common and A69 to Greenhead, where the North Tyne terminates the Pennines.

Northumberland

• 18 Greenhead (mile 199) has accommodation but there's more in nearby Haltwhistle, linked by bus and on the Carlisle-Newcastle railway. At Greenhead the Pennine Way turns east to follow Hadrian's Wall. This is the best section of the wall, with the Roman Army Museum, Vindolanda, the scarp above Crag Lough, and Housesteads. There's a coast-to-coast path along the entire wall but the other sections are not as scenic or preserved. From Housesteads the Pennine Way strikes northeast along forestry tracks in conifer plantations towards Bellingham.

• 19 Bellingham is a village with accommodation, a museum and remains of an ironworks. An occasional bus winds up the valley from Hexham.

Map: use OS Landranger 80 from Bellingham to the Cheviot summit then down to The Schil.

• 20 Byrness (mile 241) is a tiny settlement in the Cheviot Hills, which mark the border with Scotland. The closest accommodation is the Redesdale Arms 7 miles down the valley, and although it's on A68 there's only one bus a day, plying between Jedburgh and Newcastle. This is a problem, because coming up is the long final stage.

Hadrian's Wall near Greenhead

• The northernmost stage from Byrness is 27 miles along the ridge of the Cheviots, with no habitation or road access along the way. It can be done in one long day, or you can bivvy at the two refuge huts (bothies), or you can break it into three there-and-back walks from the valleys. The path climbs steeply from Byrness through forest then heads north along an open ridge to enter Scotland near Ogre Hill. It then follows the border fence, switching between England and Scotland, past the Roman fort at Chew Green and Roman "Dere Street". It comes onto the exposed ridge climbing to the well-named Windy Gyle (619 m, 2031 ft) and Cairn Hill (743 m, 2438 ft). A side path branches east to the summit of The Cheviot (815 m, 2674 ft), adding two miles there and back to the 27, with a flagstone path across the boggy plateau. But the main path descends northwest, following the border fence past a refuge hut, climbing The Schil (601 m, 1972 ft) then coming down into gentler countryside, to end at the Border Hotel in Kirk Yetholm.

Map: OS Landranger 74 covers the last couple of miles, but the way is obvious with journey's end in sight.

Journey's end in Kirk Yetholm

• 21 Kirk Yetholm (mile 268) is end of the trail. It has accommodation and a sporadic bus from Kelso. It stands on St Cuthbert's Way, a 62-mile trail from Melrose Abbey east via St Boswells and Maxton to Kirk Yetholm, then east to the coast and by tidal footpath to Lindisfarne. These trails are all lowland in nature.

Stay safe

Many parts of the Pennine Way are remote, exposed and prone to the fickle weather. You should be familiar with moorland navigation and be suitably experienced and equipped for mountain walking. Don't rely on getting a mobile signal.

Go next

• South from Edale, a leash of trails crosses the scenic Peak District, such as the railway track beds towards Matlock, Dove Dale and Ashbourne.
• From Gargrave the canal courses west across Lancashire to Liverpool, and east via Skipton to Leeds.
• From Kirk Yetholm you could go east to Lindisfarne, or north to join the Southern Upland Way near Kelso, thence by the John Muir Way across central Scotland.

Routes through Pennine Way

Edale ←

S  N

→ Kirk Yetholm