Wainwright's Pennine Journey

Cumbria, Durham, N Yorkshire, Northumberland

In September 1938, A. Wainwright made a solitary walk through the Pennines. The following year he wrote up an account of this walk, which was eventually published in 1986 and is still available.

This new route, developed by David Pitt of the Wainwright Society, is a recreation of this walk adapted for today's roads and rights of way, taking a route that Wainwright might have chosen if he was planning it today. Called 'A Pennine Journey' it is a challenging circular walk, 247 miles long divided into 18 stages, passing through the wonderful variety of terrain and scenery that the north of England offers and touching on all the major rivers in the region.

Starting in the market town of Settle in north Yorkshire, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the route heads north on the eastern side of the Pennines through the delightful Yorkshire Dales and moorland stretches of Co. Durham before arriving at Hadrian's Wall. This World Heritage site, in the Northumberland National Park, is followed for 21 miles until the route heads south on the western side of the Pennines. After traversing the Pennines just below the highest point of Cross Fell, it enters and travels down the Eden valley before skirting the Howgills Fells then arrives back in Settle.

The walk is divided into 18 daily stages of varying length and offers a choice of possibilities. It can be undertaken as one continuous walk; split at Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall (Alfred Wainwright's primary objective) into two stages of roughly 120 miles each; or divided into three stages - eastern, northern and western - of around 80 miles each. There is an outline map on the website below.

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Details:

Path Type:	Paths Marked on OS mapping
Attributes:	Challenging Moorland Mountain
Start and Finish:	SD817635 - Settle, N Yorkshire
User Group:	Pennine Journey Supporters Club Pennine Journey Supporters Club
Web Sites:	Pennine Journey Wainwright Society - AW's Coast to Coast Walk Visit Cumbria - A Pennine Journey Welcome to Yorkshire - Wainwright's Yorkshire masterpiece North Pennines National Landscape - Wainwright's Pennine Journey Masarnen Ramblers - Wainwright's Pennine Journey [blog]

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Publications, Badges and Certificates:

Guidebook	Pennine Journey : the story of a long walk in 1938  (Frances Lincoln (an imprint of Quarto)  - 2004 )
Guidebook	A Pennine Journey : from Settle to Hadrian's Wall in Wainwright's footsteps  (Sigma Press  - 2015 )

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