Author Topic: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?  (Read 1008 times)

Si Crewe

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Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« on: 15:48:32, 04/02/21 »
Hi folks.


I've previously been more of a "camper" than a "walker" and my work allowed me to take several weeks off at a time in order to travel around the UK, and abroad, visiting different places.


I've now got a more normal "9 to 5" job, which means I only have weekends to get out and about so my plan, when current restrictions are lifted, is to make day/weekend trips to interesting places and take some walks.


I was wondering if there's a website which provides, say, a map of the UK and a heap of pushpins denoting walks/hikes and, ideally, providing more information too?


I live in SW Scotland and there's some beautiful areas nearby and the Lake District is only an hour's drive away so I'm sure there are lots of suitable places but finding them is proving to be a challenge.
I've looked at the VisitScotland website and although it lists lots of "attractions" it doesn't offer any specific advice for camping or walking.


I live in a small town which has a variety of signposted walks through the town, along beaches and through the local forest and it'd be exactly the sort of place I'd like to visit... if it wasn't for the fact that I already live here!  ;D


Surely there must be some kind of online resource that will allow me to locate similar places?


Any advice would be much appreciated.





Peak

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #1 on: 16:01:22, 04/02/21 »
walkingenglishman.com is very useful and covers most areas. You can select a route with mileage to suit you and then just follow it or mark it on your map. Hope this helps.

davengf

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #2 on: 17:03:42, 04/02/21 »
+1 for Walkingenglishman.com


WalkHighlands Website is very good & for campsites, have a look at UKcampsites.







weston.front

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #3 on: 20:42:10, 04/02/21 »
It's not on-line but I've come to really appreciate Cicerone walking guides as a good starting point to an area.

A web search then taking me to peoples blogs have also been great
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fernman

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #4 on: 20:45:03, 04/02/21 »
There are plenty of routes on my.viewranger.com
The second button along on the menu bar is Find Route.
Click on that and it opens a map with orange circles with numbers (presumably the number of walks in each area.
Click on one of the orange circles and the map zooms in a bit showing small red triangles.
Then when you go to click on one of the triangles the screen rather disconcertingly shows a mass of little overlapping tiles, most showing peoples' faces.
Some of them might even be members of this forum, but don't let that put you off  :) . When you hover your cursor over any of them it shows the name of a walk and its distance in miles.
Click on the tile of any one that interests you to open a new screen with details of the walk and a routemap.
All that I personally have looked at so far are Free, so presumably some routes you are expected to pay for.
One comment I must make is that the majority of the walks in my area are around 5 miles or less, a  bit short for me and I have to look through a lot to find anything longer.

GnP

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #5 on: 23:23:45, 04/02/21 »
Try https://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/regional-lists-of-walks

It has walks in many areas with descriptions , maps , and also the GPS routes can be downloaded for many of them . O0
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BuzyG

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #6 on: 01:11:20, 05/02/21 »
Welcome to the board.


The Ramblers site has some 3000 walks listed and graded.


https://www.ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/find-a-walk-or-route.aspx?layer=routes

 
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richardh1905

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #7 on: 09:15:46, 05/02/21 »
Welcome to the forum from the southern edge of the Lake District. :)  SW Scotland very much on my radar once lockdown has lifted. Stayed at Dalbeattie a few years ago.


An OS map is my usual starting point, especially in England as the rights of way are shown. Bing Maps have an OS map layer (1:50,000 and 1:25000), very useful for panning around. Viewranger I also find useful, UKCampsites for camping (when I'm not wild camping on the fells).


I suspect that good campsites are going to get very busy when we are finally let loose!
WildAboutWalking - Join me on my walks through the wilder parts of Britain

Jac

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So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

Eyelet

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #9 on: 11:38:28, 05/02/21 »
Welcome!

I would add a few more to the above:

Walk Scotland Plus is strong on SouthWest Scotland where you live: http://www.walkscotland.plus.com/
Walking-Routes.co.uk is a website of walking websites: http://www.walking-routes.co.uk/
Frank Firth's excellent site with 700+ curated walks across Yorkshire https://www.yorkshirewalks.org/
Cheviot walks: http://www.cheviotwalks.org/

Further east from where you live, the Scottish Borders Council managed a highly successful project to create walking guides based on each of the Border towns e.g. Kelso, Jedburgh, Galashiels, Newcastleton, etc etc. with a mix of mapped town trails, country walks and hill walks which are signposted on the ground. These are all available on line:  https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/downloads/download/352/paths_around_walks and https://walkscottishborders.com/ and have GPX files to download.

Although you enquired about on-line resources, I would also make the point that print media shouldn't be overlooked. You might find that a focussed guide to an area to be more helpful. In addition to the Cicerone guides which have already been mentioned, The Pocket Mountains guides are one such range which includes coastal, country and hill-walking routes to some 50-odd areas: https://pocketmountains.com/

Another range which is strong on Scotland is the Pocket Walks series (NB different to the above): https://www.pocketwalks.com/walking-books/

Lastly you shouldn't overlook older out-of-print guidebooks which are available second-hand from the likes of AbeBooks on-line or in used bookshops (think of a visit to Wigtown or a few charity shops!). Authors such as Bob Allen wrote seriously good guidebooks to the Lakes, Snowdonia and the Dales etc which are as good a read today as they were in the 90's. As just one example, his "Escape to the Dales" gives you 45 classic walks, a lively commentary, and sketch maps - a steal at £2.38 inc p&p: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22518588121&searchurl=an%3Dbob%2Ballen%26kn%3Ddales%2B%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

Ken Wilson's seminal trilogy "Classic Walks", "Wild Walks" and "Hard Walks" are coffee table format books and not for taking on the hill, but have stunning images and are certainly still inspirational today. If you are into hill-walking you can probably buy the three for around a tenner, you won't regret it for a moment. Richard Gilbert, Terry Marsh, Ralph Storer are a few other recommended guidebook authors to look out for.

Past editions of Cicerone guides are also readily available and are cheap as chips, giving you all the usual information about the routes which won't really have changed very much, particularly in the hills.

That should keep you going for a decade or two ... it certainly did for me! O0




 
« Last Edit: 12:23:48, 05/02/21 by Eyelet »

Eyelet

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #10 on: 12:20:12, 05/02/21 »
An OS map is my usual starting point, especially in England as the rights of way are shown. Bing Maps have an OS map layer (1:50,000 and 1:25000), very useful for panning around.

Mine too and I have recently discovered that OS 1-50k and 1-25k topo mapping can be printed out up to A3 size at scale completely free on the DEFRA Magic Map site: https://magic.defra.gov.uk/magicmap.aspx and you can upload GPX tracks before you print to PDF (or JPG). It also has all sorts of interesting map layers to view. O0

Si Crewe

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #11 on: 14:58:40, 05/02/21 »
Wow!


Overwhelming response!
Many thanks, all.


I'm now going to have to spend the afternoon looking through all the sites people have mentioned.  ;D


I have a vehicle that's set up for overnight camping, so 2 people (and a dog) can sleep in it comfortably and cook food, so we can set off after work on a Friday, sleep in the vehicle, spend a whole of Saturday somewhere nice and then head home in the evening, possibly sleeping in the vehicle again on the way.
That should give me a "range" of at least a couple of hundred miles so the Lake District, Kielder, the Pennines and the Trossachs are all in my sights.


Since we're currently stuck at home when we're not working (like everybody, I guess), it'll be nice to spend some time browsing the links people have provided so we can, at least, make some plans for when things improve - which will, hopefully, happen by the time the weather gets better.

Mel

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #12 on: 15:22:21, 05/02/21 »
There's also WalkLakes for, errr, walks in the Lakes.  It has downloadable GPX files and route descriptions.

windyrigg

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #13 on: 16:46:35, 05/02/21 »
You're not far from us here in Northumberland. Two OS maps cover the walks in Kielder (OL42), and The Cheviots (OL16). There are over 350 mile of forest roads / tracks within Kielder forest, for practicable purposes you can walk them all as well as the Rights of Way (paths and bridleways etc) shown on English maps. Plenty of places for a camper as well.

rural roamer

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Re: Online resources for locating walks and hikes?
« Reply #14 on: 18:25:03, 05/02/21 »
As well as all the above, once you have identified an area to visit you can sometimes find walks to download on town/ village websites.

 

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