The trails

One path around a whole country — beach, clifftop and seawall the entire way round England's coast, opening stretch by stretch.

4345 km · spans 24 counties

Walk the outline of a whole nation — 870 miles of cliff, estuary and beach from Chepstow round to Queensferry.

1400 km · spans 16 counties

630 miles around England's toe — the longest and most demanding of the National Trails.

1014 km · spans 4 counties

The first and toughest of them all — 268 miles along England's rocky spine from the Peak to the Cheviots.

431 km · spans 8 counties

The Pennines for horse and bike — old packhorse trails and drovers' roads.

330 km · spans 6 counties

Wainwright's own invention: St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay through three national parks.

306 km · North Yorkshire & Cumbria

Wales's first National Trail, 186 miles of cliff, cove and estuary from St Dogmaels to Amroth.

299 km · Pembrokeshire

The river from its Cotswold trickle to the Thames Barrier — the gentlest long walk in Britain.

298 km · spans 7 counties

The length of the Welsh borders, tracking the eighth-century earthwork that once divided kingdoms.

285 km · spans 8 counties

A Roman road to the sea, then saltmarsh, seal colonies and enormous Norfolk skies.

254 km · Norfolk

Pilgrim country: orchards, vineyards and chalk downs between Farnham and the white cliffs of Dover.

246 km · Kent & Surrey

A long horseshoe through the empty hills of mid-Wales, from Knighton to Welshpool by way of Machynlleth.

217 km · Powys

Heather moor and high sea cliff in a horseshoe around the North York Moors.

175 km · North Yorkshire

A hundred miles of honeyed limestone, beech hangers and escarpment views to the Severn.

164 km · Gloucestershire, Somerset & Worcestershire

A hundred miles of chalk ridge from Winchester to the sea at Eastbourne, walkable in a week.

160 km · West Sussex, East Sussex & Hampshire

Britain's oldest road — a prehistoric chalk track past Avebury, hillforts and white horses.

139 km · spans 5 counties

Coast to coast along the Roman frontier, milecastle by milecastle.

135 km · Northumberland, Cumbria & Tyne and Wear

The quiet one — dry valleys and big skies through Hockney's rolling chalk country.

127 km · East Riding of Yorkshire & North Yorkshire

A coast-to-coast crossing of southern Scotland's empty hills, from Portpatrick to the North Sea.

344 km · Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders & South Lanarkshire

A coast-to-coast across Scotland's waist, from Helensburgh to the conservationist's birthplace at Dunbar.

215 km · spans 9 counties

Firth to firth around the Kingdom of Fife, threading fishing villages from the Forth bridges to the Tay.

187 km · Fife

A hundred miles up the Ayrshire coast, from Glenapp in the south to Skelmorlie, in sight of Arran the whole way

161 km · South Ayrshire & North Ayrshire

A hundred miles down the Kintyre peninsula, from Tarbert on Loch Fyne to Machrihanish on the Atlantic, by way of Campbeltown

161 km · Argyll and Bute

Scotland's classic walk — from the edge of Glasgow along Loch Lomond and over Rannoch Moor to the foot of Ben Nevis.

154 km · spans 4 counties

Follow whisky country's river from the Moray coast into the Cairngorms, distillery by distillery.

137 km · Moray & Highland

Through the outlaw's country — southern Highland glens, lochs and falls between Drymen and Pitlochry.

128 km · Stirling & Perth and Kinross

Along the great fault line from Fort William to Inverness, tracing the Caledonian Canal and the shore of Loch Ness.

127 km · Highland

A 68-mile circuit of the Scottish Borders linking the four great ruined abbeys and the old mill towns between them

109 km · Scottish Borders

Sixty-six miles of canal towpath coast to coast across central Scotland, from Bowling on the Clyde to Edinburgh

106 km · spans 7 counties

A 65-mile circuit of the Isle of Arran, keeping to the shore all the way round from Brodick back to Brodick

105 km · North Ayrshire

A 64-mile circuit of the glens north of Blairgowrie, following the old drove roads of the Perthshire cattle country

103 km · Perth and Kinross & Angus

A pilgrim's line from Melrose Abbey over the Cheviots to the tidal causeway of Lindisfarne.

100 km · Scottish Borders & Northumberland

Sixty miles by canoe or kayak coast to coast through the Great Glen, from Fort William to Inverness by loch and canal

96 km · Highland

Fifty-seven miles across the Cowal peninsula, from the Loch Fyne shore at Portavadie to the banks of Loch Lomond

92 km · Argyll and Bute

Fifty-six miles down the length of Annandale, from the Devil's Beef Tub above Moffat to the Solway at Annan

88 km · Dumfries and Galloway & Scottish Borders

A flat, easy rail trail across the farmland of north-east Aberdeenshire, from the edge of Aberdeen out to Fraserburgh and Peterhead

86 km · Aberdeenshire & Aberdeen

Fifty-one miles of old cattle-droving route from the Pentlands near Edinburgh south through the Borders to Hawick

84 km · Scottish Borders & West Lothian

Fifty-two miles across the Southern Uplands from Ae Forest to Hawick, on old Roman and drove roads through Reivers country

84 km · Dumfries and Galloway & Scottish Borders

Forty-five miles of firth coastline from Forres to Cullen, past fishing villages, cliffs and dolphin water

71 km · Moray

Forty-one miles source to sea, following the River Ayr from Glenbuck Loch down through the gorges to Ayr harbour

66 km · East Ayrshire & South Ayrshire

Forty miles up the River Clyde from central Glasgow to New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde

65 km · South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire & Glasgow

Thirty-seven miles up the Rhins of Galloway, from Scotland's southernmost point at the Mull to Glenapp on the Ayrshire border

59 km · Dumfries and Galloway

Thirty-four miles from Loch Lomond to the head of Loch Long, past the Gareloch, crossing the Highland line

55 km · Argyll and Bute & West Dunbartonshire

Thirty miles of cliff and shore down the Berwickshire coast, from Cockburnspath to Berwick-upon-Tweed

48 km · Scottish Borders & Northumberland

Thirty miles through the heart of the Trossachs, from Callander to Loch Lomond along a chain of lochs

48 km · Stirling

Thirty miles the length of the Isle of Bute, from Kilchattan Bay to Port Bannatyne, the first waymarked route on a Scottish island

48 km · Argyll and Bute

Twenty-four miles along a closed Highland railway line, from Grantown-on-Spey over Dava Moor to Forres

38 km · Moray & Highland

England's longest inland waymarked trail, tracing Charles II's escape route from defeat at Worcester in 1651 to the ship waiting at Shoreham.

1006 km · spans 14 counties

The mountain connoisseur's route over the roof of Wales — Cardiff to Conwy by way of the Bannau, the Cambrian wilderness and Eryri.

479 km · spans 9 counties

Boston to Abbotsbury down the limestone belt — 290 miles waymarked in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

467 km · spans 10 counties

Around Thomas Hardy's Wessex from his birthplace cottage to the churchyard at Stinsford, via Corfe Castle and Lulworth Cove.

348 km · Dorset & Wiltshire

Britain's longest riverside walk, shadowing the Severn from its peat-hag source on Plynlimon to the docks at Bristol.

337 km · spans 5 counties

Hertfordshire's grand circuit from the Royce Stone at Royston — chalk streams, commons and country houses for nearly 200 miles.

314 km · Hertfordshire

A figure-of-eight on Shrewsbury through the Shropshire hills, with the Wrekin, the Stiperstones and Wenlock Edge all on the round.

293 km · Shropshire & Wrexham

A figure-of-eight on Barnstaple through Tarka the Otter's north Devon — part riverside rail path, part moor, part coast, one leg by train.

290 km · Devon & Somerset

The Chiltern Society's grand loop through four counties of beechwood and chalk, grown from a Millennium project into 177 miles.

285 km · spans 5 counties

Around Kent's Roman-era coastline from Gravesend to Hastings — a shore the sea has since abandoned for miles at a stretch.

257 km · Kent & East Sussex

A circuit of Herefordshire's five market towns — Ledbury, Ross, Kington, Leominster and Bromyard — through orchard and hop country.

248 km · Herefordshire

The 'M25 for walkers' — an orbital path through outer London's woods, commons and river valleys from Erith to Purfleet.

242 km · spans 5 counties

The Great Ouse walked source to sea — from a pub garden at Syresham to the old quay at King's Lynn, 150 miles across five counties.

241 km · spans 5 counties

Round inland Sussex on the old county boundary from Emsworth to Rye — nearly 150 miles of quiet country for the busy South East.

241 km · spans 5 counties

Through the old Danelaw from the Humber Bridge, over the Lincolnshire Wolds and along the limestone Edge to Rutland Water.

237 km · Lincolnshire, Rutland & Leicestershire

The prehistoric chalk line continued — from Marlborough across Salisbury Plain and Cranborne Chase to the sea at Lyme Regis.

219 km · Wiltshire, Dorset & Devon

Following the Wye upstream from Chepstow's castle through gorge, orchard and moorland to the river's source country on Plynlimon.

219 km · spans 4 counties

The missing middle of the 'oldest road in Britain', linking the Ridgeway at Ivinghoe Beacon to the Peddars Way at Knettishall Heath.

177 km · spans 7 counties

Bridgnorth to Gloucester through the Abberley and Malvern Hills Geopark — 700 million years of geology in 109 miles.

175 km · spans 4 counties

Along the sandy ridge below the chalk from Haslemere to Hamstreet, through the wooded hills of two protected landscapes to the edge of Romney Marsh.

174 km · Surrey & Kent

A circuit of Dartmoor's towns and villages around the National Park's edge, with an optional link straight over the high moor.

173 km · Devon

Nottingham Castle to Edwinstowe church through Sherwood Forest — the outlaw's county end to end.

169 km · Nottinghamshire

The Midlands' green spine, from Cannock Chase through the old Forest of Arden to Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds.

167 km · spans 4 counties

Devon's south-to-north crossing, over Dartmoor and Exmoor from Ivybridge to the sea at Lynmouth.

164 km · Devon & Somerset

A hundred miles around Leicester, devised for the Footpath Association's hundredth year — Charnwood, Burrough Hill and Bosworth on the circuit.

161 km · Leicestershire & Rutland

Across the full width of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, from the Skirrid above Abergavenny to the western Black Mountain at Llangadog.

159 km · Powys, Carmarthenshire & Monmouthshire

Lindisfarne to Hadrian's Wall at Heavenfield, joining the places of Northumbria's saint-king by coast, castle and the Coquet valley.

156 km · Northumberland

Chepstow to Tewkesbury the long way round: the Forest of Dean, a Severn crossing at Gloucester and a climb over the Cotswold edge.

151 km · Gloucestershire

Great Yarmouth to Thetford up the Waveney and Little Ouse, along the quiet river border between Norfolk and Suffolk.

150 km · Suffolk & Norfolk

Mow Cop to Kinver Edge behind the Staffordshire Knot waymark — gritstone, Cannock Chase heath and red sandstone to finish.

148 km · Staffordshire, Derbyshire & Cheshire

Dufton to Teesmouth down the whole of the Tees, past High Force and Low Force to the industrial river mouth, with a dipper for a waymark.

148 km · County Durham, North Yorkshire & Cumbria

Horsham to Rye through the High Weald's ridge villages and hammer ponds — iron country, worked for two thousand years.

145 km · West Sussex, Kent & East Sussex

Border to border across Dorset, Forde Abbey to Bokerley Dyke, laid out by Ramblers volunteers for their diamond jubilee in 1995.

145 km · Dorset

The Dales Way's high-level companion, crossing Ingleborough and the Howgill Fells on its way from Saltaire to Appleby.

140 km · Cumbria, North Yorkshire & West Yorkshire

A circuit of Eryri's slate country from Bangor — quarry villages, inclines and mountain passes in the landscape that roofed the world.

134 km · Gwynedd & Conwy

Estuary to sea across Kent and Sussex — Gravesend to Eastbourne over the North Downs, the deep Weald and a Beachy Head finish.

132 km · East Sussex & Kent

Around Bedfordshire in John Bunyan's footsteps — Elstow, Bedford and the chalk rises he recast as the Delectable Mountains.

131 km · Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire

Across rural Essex from Epping to the port of Harwich, through Constable's Dedham Vale and a string of medieval villages.

130 km · Essex

The gentlest of the classic long walks — riverside paths along the Wharfe and the Dee from Ilkley to the shore of Windermere.

129 km · Cumbria, North Yorkshire & West Yorkshire

London's inner orbital walk, stringing together 78 miles of parks, canals and viewpoints through the middle suburbs.

126 km · London

The National Memorial Arboretum to Beacon Hill through the young woods of the National Forest, planted across the old coalfield.

121 km · Leicestershire, Derbyshire & Staffordshire

The Wear from mouth to moor — Roker pier to Cowshill, passing beneath Durham Cathedral on the way up the dale.

119 km · County Durham & Tyne and Wear

Sea to source up the Ribble valley, from the marshes at Longton to the high fell country above Ribblehead.

113 km · Lancashire, North Yorkshire & Cumbria

Combe Gibbet to Emsworth harbour across Watership Down and the Hampshire chalk — high downland one end, saltmarsh the other.

113 km · Hampshire & Berkshire

Through the Lake District's heart at valley level — Coniston, Langdale, Borrowdale and Caldbeck between the old market towns of Ulverston and Carlisle.

112 km · Cumbria

The full circuit of the island — chalk at the Needles and Culver Down, sailing harbours, and beaches with fossils in them.

109 km · Isle of Wight

Across Oxfordshire from Bourton-on-the-Water to Henley-on-Thames, joining the Cotswolds to the Chilterns by field path and village.

108 km · Oxfordshire & Gloucestershire

From East Croydon station to the sea at Newhaven, named for the rambling club founded in a crowded train's guard's van in 1965.

107 km · spans 4 counties

A deliberately winding line through the heaths between Haslemere and Petersfield, purple with heather by late summer.

106 km · West Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire

A diamond-shaped wander through the small villages of the north Cotswolds, drawn up for the Ramblers' sixtieth anniversary.

105 km · Gloucestershire

Pembrey to Margam through the hill country behind Swansea Bay, crossing four river valleys on a route devised by Llanelli's Ramblers.

103 km · Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot & Swansea

Following the Dorset Stour from the lakes at Stourhead to the sea at Hengistbury Head, under a kingfisher waymark.

103 km · Dorset & Wiltshire

A green-belt circuit of Leeds that never strays more than seven miles from the city centre, yet spends most of its time in farmland.

100 km · West Yorkshire

Cresswell to Berwick past Warkworth, Dunstanburgh and Bamburgh — castle after castle on the gentlest of the great coast walks.

100 km · Northumberland

Cromer to Great Yarmouth by old railway lines and marsh — Blickling, Hickling Broad and the wide Halvergate levels.

98 km · Norfolk

Prestatyn to Bangor on the higher, older line above the north coast, over the Great Orme and Conwy Mountain to Aber Falls.

97 km · Conwy, Gwynedd & Denbighshire

Hampshire's shoreline from Milford on Sea to Emsworth, past Hurst Castle, the Beaulieu River and Portsmouth's naval harbours.

97 km · Hampshire

Newmarket to the estuary at Cattawade down the Suffolk Stour, finishing among the scenes Constable painted in Dedham Vale.

97 km · Suffolk, Essex & Cambridgeshire

Ladybower to the Trent down the Derbyshire Derwent, through the mill valley where the factory system began.

89 km · Derbyshire

Cardiff Bay to Brecon on old tramways and towpaths up the Taff — shared with bikes, with Castell Coch on the way out of town.

88 km · spans 4 counties

Monmouth to Kemble, stitching the Wye to the source of the Thames across the Forest of Dean and the Stroud valleys.

88 km · Gloucestershire

A circuit of upper Nidderdale from Pateley Bridge, past Brimham Rocks and How Stean Gorge under a curlew waymark.

85 km · North Yorkshire

A web of green corridors across south-east London, joining the Thames marshes to Nunhead Cemetery park by park.

82 km · London

The original recreational-route circuit of 1978 — a fifty-mile loop of Calderdale's moor edges, packhorse ways and mill towns.

80 km · West Yorkshire

Cambridge to King's Lynn beside the Cam and the Great Ouse, dead level across the Fens under a blue eel waymark.

80 km · Cambridgeshire & Norfolk

Down the Lea from its source at Leagrave to the Thames at Limehouse — flat towpath walking through Hertford and the Olympic Park.

80 km · spans 4 counties

Fifty miles along the Mendip ridge from the Bristol Channel at Uphill to Frome, past Cheddar Gorge and the cathedral at Wells.

80 km · Somerset

Source to sea with the Parrett, from the Dorset border hills across the Somerset Levels to the Bristol Channel at Stert Point.

80 km · Somerset & Dorset

Caerleon's Roman fortress to Brecon, following the Usk by riverside path and canal towpath under an otter's-head waymark.

77 km · Powys, Monmouthshire & Newport

Through the White Peak's dales and plateau pastures from Castleton to Rocester on the Staffordshire border.

74 km · Derbyshire & Staffordshire

A loop of the Pendle countryside from Barrowford, waymarked with a witch on a broomstick and never far from the hill itself.

72 km · Lancashire & North Yorkshire

From the high chalk at Inkpen to tidal water at Eling, dropping into the valley of England's most famous trout stream.

71 km · Hampshire, Berkshire & Wiltshire

Oakwell Hall to Gawthorpe Hall across the Pennine edge — Haworth, Top Withens and the moors behind Wuthering Heights.

69 km · West Yorkshire & Lancashire

A figure-of-eight on the old Saxon town of Winchcombe, taking in Cleeve Common, Belas Knap long barrow and Hailes Abbey.

68 km · Gloucestershire

Leighton Buzzard to Gamlingay along Bedfordshire's wooded sandstone ridge, waymarked with a muntjac in a nod to Woburn's escapees.

64 km · Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & Cambridgeshire

Droitwich Spa to Broadway over the summit of Bredon Hill — Worcestershire river country rising to the Cotswold escarpment.

64 km · Worcestershire

A North Pennines round from Allendale in the footsteps of Isaac Holden, the lead miner turned tea seller who fundraised village to village.

58 km · Northumberland & Cumbria

The connector from the Cotswold Way at Cold Ashton to the Mendips at Shipham — limestone to limestone, marked with an ammonite.

58 km · Somerset & Gloucestershire

Along the Peak District's western gritstone edges from Disley to Kidsgrove, with the Cheshire Plain spread below.

56 km · Cheshire & Staffordshire

Cheshire's best-known walk, running the wooded sandstone ridge from Frodsham to Whitchurch above the plain.

55 km · Cheshire & Shropshire

Pevensey to Rye by way of Battle — the Norman Conquest's landing country, with carved oak sculptures marking the route.

50 km · East Sussex

Bewdley to Great Malvern along Worcestershire's hilly western edge, finishing under the long ridge of the Malverns.

50 km · Worcestershire & Herefordshire

Padstow to Fowey across mid-Cornwall — the old overland shortcut between two coasts, reopened as a waymarked route in 1986.

43 km · Cornwall