About the Walks
The majority of the walks featured on this site are broadly circular in nature so that one arrives back at your car. Before you consider that l am not acting in an environmentally manner l would point out that most of those starting in County Durham are Guided walks from Durham County Council where l have been a walk leader since 1999. These involve up to 50 people and average about 35 with participants coming from all over County Durham (as well as Tyne & Wear and Teeside), and many starts are inaccessable for public transport. I speak as a long time and active member of Friends of the Earth. Other walks elsewhere are normally done in the company of three or four friends who all travel in the same vehicle!
I have not included any grade as different people have different ideas of grade depending on their relative fitness and how often they are out walking. In general they are about 12 miles long which, allowing for stops for lunch and spending time at specific features, takes about six hours but none will be severe or involve exposure to big drops. Apart from the locations visited those days are sadly passed and l now can experience a certain degree of vertigo on places like the Five Sisters of Kintail or on cliff edges.
The bulk of the walks, as stated, are in County Durham but other areas walked include the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines, which is now possibly my favourite area as it has not substantially changed in my lifetime as far as scenery goes. Other places are the beautiful county of Northumberland, the North Yorkshire Moors and all of Southern Scotland where many walks can be enjoyed in solitude apart from the sheep. I still enjoy walking alone as you are much nearer to nature and on many of the walks here you will find yourself alone for miles on end!
There is little on the Lakes but this area is so well documented that l could add little. Who can compete with the incomparable Alfred Wainwright? There will in the course of time be a little in the Howgills where l sometimes go on Bank Holidays, or the delectable Eden Valley where the family are fortunate to have a house just within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
In the couse of time l will endeavour to include some shorter walks that may well fill in an afternoon or a summer evening.
We normally retire after the walk to a welcoming pub which must sell real ale, that is also well kept but as the character and quality of a pub can change in a short time (as l am sure we all know from bitter experience!) these are excluded. I will try to put on a list of favoured pubs and welcome your views on this matter.
On all the walks l consider it is essential to carry a 1:25000 OS Explorer Map and consequently the descriptions are not of the sort which tell you every minute detail of the route. Normally the map does that and if not l will try to put in additional information. I consider it is better to try to include aspects of interest and if more information is required it can normally be found on the web or in a relevant book. Obviously these reflect some of my interests such as railways, industrial archaeology and birdlife which feature regularly. An aspect of the Durham County Council walks is that they must have a theme and being a pack horse bridge ‘anorak’ there are also walks visiting these varied structures.
Finally, l hope that if you decide to try any of my walks you enjoy them as much as l do! It is only by walking on paths in less frequented areas that keep them easy to access. There is certainly little sign of footpath erosion on most of these walks.