Before you walk

These guides are written to help you plan. They are not a safety net, and they are not current. Here is exactly what that means.

Use these guides at your own risk

WalkSage is a written publication — not a service, not a guide company, not a tour operator, and not anyone's emergency contact. One person researches and writes this material. Nobody from WalkSage has walked, inspected, or surveyed any of these routes.

Our maps are illustrative and are not navigational instruments

They are drawn from OpenStreetMap data at page scale, with a deliberately hand-drawn style. Do not navigate by them. Carry a proper map or a GPS device with offline coverage — and a backup means of navigation, because one phone is a single point of failure.

A path shown on a map is not a promise. That a track appears on our map, or in OpenStreetMap, is not evidence that it is passable today, that it is safe, or that you have a legal right to walk it. Paths are diverted, permissions are withdrawn, bridges wash out, and waymarks are moved, removed, or vandalised.

Our information is coarser than your decision

We describe a stage as a whole. Conditions vary over very short distances and change within hours. Nothing here describes the ground in front of you on the day you are standing on it. Distances and elevation are approximations; where we cannot verify a number, the page says so rather than guessing.

Where we conflict with anyone local, they are right

Local authorities, route associations, pilgrim offices, refuge wardens, national weather services, and the notice board in the village all override anything you read here. Seasonal closures and diversions are decided by them, not by us, and we will usually be the last to know.

You decide

Whether a stage is within your ability on the day is your judgment alone — your fitness and health, your equipment, your food and water, the forecast, the daylight left, and the season. Turning back is always available and is frequently the correct choice. We publish no time estimates, and nothing on this site is encouragement to press on, keep to a schedule, or attempt a crossing.

Nothing here is medical advice. Talk to a doctor about your fitness to undertake a long walk.

Walking is dangerous

We adopt the British Mountaineering Council's participation statement, which is the standard formulation in the outdoor sector:

The BMC recognises that climbing, hill walking and mountaineering are activities with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions and involvement.

Some stages on the routes we cover cross exposed high ground where conditions turn dangerous quickly and where people are seriously injured or killed in most years.

Found something wrong? Tell us

If a description, distance, or map on this site is wrong — especially if it is wrong in a way that could put someone in the wrong place — please tell us. We correct errors and publish the correction with a date. Reports about hazards, closures, and diversions get priority over everything else we do.

You can reach us through the details on our Terms of Use page.

Where our information comes from

Route geometry and place data come from OpenStreetMap contributors, photographs substantially from Wikimedia Commons, structured facts from Wikidata, and climate figures from public meteorological data. Every stage guide shows the date its data was checked, and every source is credited on our attribution page. None of that makes the information current on the day you walk.