The following is a selection from my Favourites list. They are sites that I’ve found particularly useful for both inspiration and walk planning.
Walking World – Currently has over 8500 walks with a fast and flexible search facility. All with full route descriptions, OS maps, guidance photos and downloadable GPS way-points. You can buy individual walk details but an annual subscription allows full access to all for less than 20 quid – brilliant value.
Walking Britain – Compiled by Lou Johnson, the site has a good range of walks available for free download along with a variety of other information. The walks are searchable by location and grade and come with full route descriptions, photos and an outline route map.
Walking Englishman – A huge site by Mike Brockhurst with a vast amount of information on both walking in general and details of specific walks, most with maps and photos and reports of his own experience of each walk.
The Long Distance Walkers Association – The association’s website contains a lot of useful information including a searchable database of long distance paths and trails.
National Trails – The first stop for information about all of the National Trails. It contains summary information for each and links to more detailed sites.
The Cleveland Way:
- Cleveland Way – the official National Trail homepage
- George Tod – walked this trail in 1999
The Pennine Way:
- Pennine Way – the official National Trail homepage
- George Tod – has walked it three times!
The Cotswold Way:
- thecotswoldway.org – an independent guide to the trail with stage-by-stage distances, terrain and accommodation for each overnight stop, put together to make life easier for anyone planning their trip. They also respond to any enquiries from walkers looking for help planning their itinerary and general information.
Anglesey Coast Path:
- Friends of Anglesey Coastal Path – shares the maps and routes info with the Visit Anglesey site but has further information of its own
Mapyx Quo – Really nice, easy-to-use digital mapping software. The software’s free, buy OS map tiles as and when you want them.
Outdooractive – (Successor to the Viewranger app mentioned in some of the walks). A GPS app that provides downloadable mapping, route finding, route planning and more.