You could say it all started on 22nd June 1935. An article appeared in the ‘Daily Herald’ entitled ‘WANTED: A LONG GREEN TRAIL’ written by the ramblers’ champion Tom Stephenson. ‘Why should we not press for something akin to the Appalachian Trail?’ he asked. ‘A Pennine Way from the Peak to the Cheviots.’ He imagined that the route would be ‘a faint line on the Ordnance Maps which the feet of grateful pilgrims would, with the passing years, engrave on the face of the land.’

The Pennine Way didn’t open until 24th April 1965 and it didn’t take members of my family long to trek the route, inspiring others, and ultimately myself, to follow in their footsteps. Despite walking the whole of the Pennine Way twice and many parts of it dozens of times, as well as exploring all parts of the Pennines, there was never an opportunity to write a guidebook to the route, although I was asked to supply several pictures to illustrate a guidebook written by Martin Collins. Some years later, at short notice, I was told that the guidebook needed a complete overhaul, with a very short turnaround time. It didn’t take me long to pack and start walking the route yet again!

I walked the whole of the Pennine Way, including slight variant and alternative routes, and explored attractions, facilities and services off-route, all in a single journey. I was lucky with the weather, but in any case had years of pictures to fall back on if I needed good coverage on the occasional misty day. It was great to renew acquaintance with the route, literally a stroll down memory lane, and while some parts seem timeless, other parts have changed dramatically. In the early years, the route became badly over-trodden, resulting in waist-deep quagmires with the consistency of cold black porridge. The worst parts have been resurfaced with firm flagstones and the bogs alongside have been re-vegetated. The Pennine Way remains a scenic trail, easier underfoot, without losing its sense of challenge.

The entire route and all its variants were walked again for the fourth edition of the guidebook. This new edition is as up-to-date as possible, illustrated in colour throughout and contains notes about all the useful facilities along the way. The new edition includes an accompanying Pennine Way map book, containing detailed 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey strip mapping.

GPX tracks are available for all the routes in this guidebook. They can be downloaded from the Cicerone website.