Travel&Vacation

The American Adventurer

At times steep, wet, and inescapably barren, England’s 268-mile Pennine Way walking trail isn’t likely to make the cover of many travel glossies here in the States. Often cold,
always
muddy, there’s little doubt it’s the most physically and mentally challenging trek in the United Kingdom. But for those who believe the best way to see the world is on their own two feet, there’s also no more rewarding ramble in all of Europe.

As the very first in England’s vast network of crisscrossing long-distance paths, the Pennine Way blazed a trail, both literal and figurative, through areas of the British countryside that had long been the exclusive domain of private landowners and elite hunting clubs. And what a trail it blazed.

Typically walked from south to north to keep the wind and sun (and frequently the driving rain, too) at your back, this classic path follows the mountainous backbone of England through endless moorlands, marshes, and river valleys; over staggering limestone cliffs; past the largest ancient ruin in Europe; and across the wildest, moodiest stretch of land in the country before concluding at the Scottish border after two to three long, wearying weeks of walking.

‘Fantastic, stunning, endless views’

“We picked the Pennine Way because it was the original national trail,” says Tom Read, a 36-year-old high school math teacher from Cheshire who walked the trail with his teenage son last summer. “Choosing any other would have meant a continued yearning to do it.”

“I kept singing, ‘I can see for miles and miles,’” says Andy Allan, a 26-year-old IT support manager from London, describing the Pennine Way’s “fantastic, stunning, endless views.”

“For most of the day, every day, we were many miles from civilization,” adds Read.

This exercise in isolation begins at the Nags Head Pub in the village of Edale, about four hours northwest of London by train. The trail is typically walked over the course of 16 days, but there’s no rule that says it can’t be done at a more leisurely pace—or a faster one, for that matter, depending on your tolerance for sore feet. The record is two-and-a-half days. (It wasn’t me.)

Many walkers forgo the southern and northern extremities altogether and focus on the more accessible middle section of the trail, the highlight of which is High Cup Nick: a huge glacial valley that emerges almost too-suddenly at your feet like a giant rocky gutter scooped from the landscape below. But the boggy moorlands of the south and the wild, sweeping ridges of the north have highlights of their own.

Top Withins, better known to romantics and English majors everywhere as the supposed inspiration for Emily Brontë’s
Wuthering Heights
, broods timelessly over the Yorkshire moors. Long since abandoned, the tumbledown remains of this old farmhouse are watched over by two windswept trees and a legion of lazy sheep. Just as impressive are the extensive views of the treeless hills that carry the Pennine Way further north. There the remains of Hadrian’s Wall and the airy Cheviot Hills inspire even the weariest of walkers to march on toward the finish line in the Scottish border town of Kirk Yetholm.

Planning your trip

If there’s a downside to these wide open spaces, it’s the shortage of accommodations directly on the trail itself. Unless you’re sturdy enough to carry a tent with you throughout the walk—one that totals more than 32,000 feet in elevation gain—you’ll likely end up walking more than the official 268 miles just to reach your inn or youth hostel each night.

A cottage industry of baggage transfer services has grown up around the trail to help ease that inconvenience. Tom Read and his son used Brigantes Walking Holidays & Baggage Couriers, the only company to offer door-to-door baggage transfers for the entire length of the trail. Brigantes charges £145 per person (about $290; see XE.com for current exchange rates) for baggage transfers along the full route. It will also give individual quotes for shorter stages depending on the particular route requested. For £900, the company will also reserve and purchase your daily bed and breakfast for each stage of the walk.