Often called “the backbone of England”, the Pennine Way is a 268-mile route that passes through some dramatic and challenging landscapes. The terrain is mainly moorland, wild open ground with few trees to protect hikers from the weather. Although there aren’t any mountains to climb, there are some steep ascents. The trail is both tough and rewarding and leads hikers through some of the treasures of British landscape: the national parks of the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines.
the fight for the land
Although now the Pennine Way is seen as an important part of British heritage, getting it established wasn’t easy. In fact, the struggle lasted over thirty years. Back in the 1930s, most moorland was off limits to ordinary walkers because landowners preferred to keep their land for private grouse shooting. This meant huge areas of wild, unfarmed land were in the hands of the wealthy few.
In 1932, a group led by members of the Young Communist League decided to use an act of civil disobedience to claim their right to walk across this private land. On April 24 1932, several hundred walkers converged on the site of Kinder Scout, a beautiful high plateau close to the large industrial cities of Manchester and Sheffield and now part of the Pennine Way. In an act of mass trespass, the walkers climbed up towards the Kinder Scout plateau. There were a few violent confrontations with gamekeepers who tried to stop them and several walkers received prison sentences. But they succeeded in making their views heard.
A long trail for everyone
In 1935, a journalist and activist called Tom Stephenson began campaigning for a long-distance trail to be established that would give ordinary people the chance to enjoy walking and the outdoors. Stephenson contacted politicians to help him with his cause and finally, after a thirty-year legal and political struggle, the Pennine Way opened in 1965.
Of course you don’t have to complete the whole 268-mile route; plenty of people enjoy just walking short sections of it. The Kinder Scout ascent, for example, is now a popular Sunday afternoon excursion. But if you do decide to do the whole trail, go prepared. You’ll probably need two to three weeks, plus appropriate hiking gear, and a map and compass. There are places where GPS won’t help you!
the backbone of england
The Pennine Way is Britain’s first and best-known National Trail, passing through the National Parks of the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland. Martyn Sharp is a Pennine Way ranger who works on maintaining the section of the trail that runs through the Peak District National Park. He knows the landscape here like the back of his hand. The open moorland is his office, he’s out in it every day, whatever the weather. We put on our raincoats and joined him in Edale, Derbyshire, at the start of the Pennine Way.
PAST AND PRESENT
Sharp began by explaining why the Pennine Way is so special… and so tough.
Martyn Sharp (English accent): The thing about the Pennine Way is, if you ask anybody who isn’t even a walker, generally they’ll have heard of the Pennine Way… It’s deep in folklore. And it’s no longer the longest National Trail. That is now the South-West coast path. But it’s still the toughest. You need to have a map and compass with you. And it goes into some of the more remote and wild areas of England. You’re walking up the backbone of England. So it starts here in Edale, where we are now, and it does go over the border slightly into Scotland in places, but it ends at the border at Kirk Yetholm. And even in this day and age it’s still a challenge. And one of the challenges is the weather.
WET AND WILD
He went on to tell us about the conditions hikers should prepare for on the Pennine Way.
Martyn Sharp: It’s open moorland. It’s wet, it’s high up, so you usually get wind and rain and fog and this, that and the other. The highest point is Cross Fell, which is 893 metres, and that is quite a long climb up and it’s really exposed. You’re into the North Pennines, and generally, when you’re up on the hills there’s always a breeze-stroke-wind and it’s usually wet underfoot.
BODY AND MIND
Walking the Pennine Way is, Sharp argued, about the mind and spirit as well as the body.
Martyn Sharp: It’s that wilderness feel. In a day and age of social media and 24-hour contact and [with] everybody you are in areas where nobody can contact you. And it’s a certain type of person – and I’m one of them – who likes that kind of thing, to leave this mad world behind and everything that’s happening. You’re walking at your pace and everything slows down and there’s a peace. And if you’re enjoying it, which not everybody does, but if you’re enjoying it, you start to see the surroundings. And you see nature and wildlife and things like that…. Also there’s a camaraderie. You might set off from Edale and you’ve never met a person, man or woman, before. And after two or three days you become friends because you’re both walking that same trail. And you’re both feeling, encountering, encompassing that same environment and that same weather and stuff like that. I’ve been up on Kinder and Bleaklow and Blackhill when it’s been so strong, the wind, that it has blown you off your feet. And the rain is sideways, you’re in a blizzard, it’s freezing cold, all those kind of things. If you can see that through, get dry, and carry on the next day, there’s that sense of achievement as well. If you can do that in, like I say, an average three weeks and battle the elements, maybe battle solitude and stuff like that, it’s that massive sense of achievement.