The trail guide and maps have been divided into 15 stages (walking from south to north, the direction taken by 80% of walkers on the Pennine Way), though these are not to be taken as rigid daily itineraries since people walk at different speeds and have different interests.
The route overviews introduce the trail for each of these stages. They’re followed by information about route-finding troublespots highlighting places where even experienced walkers may want to pay close attention to navigation.
To enable you to plan your itinerary, practical information is presented on the trail maps. This includes walking times for both directions, all places to stay and eat, as well as useful shops and other services.
Further details are given in the text under the entry for each place. For an overview of all this information see the town and village facilities table, pp66-7.
TRAIL MAPS
Scale and walking times
The trail maps are to a scale of 1:20,000 (1cm = 200m; 31/8 inches = one mile). Walking times are given along the side of each map; the arrow shows the direction to which the time refers. The black triangles indicate the points between which the times have been taken. See box below about walking times.
These time-bars are a rough guide and are not there to judge your walking ability. There are so many variables that affect walking speed from the weather conditions to how many beers you drank the previous evening. After the first hour or two of walking you’ll be able to see how your speed relates to the timings on the maps.
Up or down?
The trail is shown as a dashed line. An arrow across the trail indicates the slope; two arrows show that it is steep. Note that the arrow points towards the higher part of the trail.
If, for example, you are walking from A (at 80m) to B (at 200m) and the trail between the two is short and steep, it would be shown thus: A- - - - >>- - - -B. Reversed arrow heads indicate a downward gradient.
Accommodation
Apart from in large towns where some selection has been necessary, all accommodation on or close to the trail is marked (or indicated off the maps) with details in the accompanying text.
Unless otherwise specified, B&B rates are per person (/pp) for the summer (high) season assuming two people sharing a room; see also pp16-17. The number and type of room is given for each entry: S = single room, D = double, T = Twin, F = family (ie sleeping three or more people).
Other map features
The numbered GPS waypoints refer to the list on pp256-62. Features are marked on the map when they are pertinent to navigation. In order to avoid cluttering the maps and making them unusable not all features have been marked each time they occur.
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