To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Pennine Way, Andrew McCloy, former information officer for the Ramblers Association and now working for the Peak District National Park Authority, decided to walk this, the oldest and best known of our long-distance footpaths.
As he walked the path from Edale to Kirk Yetholm he met record-breaking walkers, resourceful and sometimes eccentric B&B landladies, and hardworking rangers to find out what the path has meant to them.
In the book he recounts how traditional path-building techniques are taming the notorious bogs of the Southern Pennines, where changes to the early guidebooks have taken place, and what singles out this exhilarating yet complex path from every other trail in Britain.
The book is divided into twelve chapters of between sixteen and twenty pages, even though it took Andrew seventeen days to actually walk the route in July 2015.
This is not a step-by-step guide, although it does cover all 268 miles from Edale to Kirk Yetholm. What it gives the reader is much more than this. It tells much of the creation of the Pennine Way including how ramblers fought [quite literally at times] for access to the high places of the Peak District, the development of the trail over the last fifty years, the changes in the route and how communities along the trail have embraced the walk by providing accommodation, sustenance and friendship for the walkers passing through their towns and villages.
It is a fascinating book, punctuated with fifty colour or sepia photographs showing current views along the route plus also events from the history of the walk over the last fifty years.
Published by Cicerone, £12.95.
ISBN: 978-1-85284-924-5
Yorkshire Reporter Reader Offer;
Enter the code YORKS at the checkout on www.cicerone.co.uk to get 25% off the book until the end of October.
To win a copy of the book
go to the competition page
