Walks of Great Britain

These days bookshops are amply stocked with shelves full of walking books. Indeed, regions such as the Lake District may be covered with a large section all to itself, with walks ranging from mountain challenges to family strolls. Walking is big business in the twenty-first century, and rightly so — all our needs and desires are covered. Yet just a generation or two ago, one looking for information on walking and on suitable walks may have been hard-pressed to find the information they were looking for. Early pioneers such as Alfred Wainwright were inspirational, providing information on areas to visit and walk, but they were few and far between. It was a specialist area.

Recognising a need for wider access to books on walking, the publishers Marshall Cavendish in collaboration with Ordnance Survey created the first widespread series of walks in Great Britain called the "Out and About: Discovering the Countryside on Foot" series of books. Designed as clip-in/pull-out walks within lever-arch files, collected in sections as they were published and distributed during the early 1990s, the series covered all areas of Great Britain: Scotland, The North, Central England, Wales, the South West, The South East, and The East. Altogether the series assembles a great selection of walks, many of which I have followed myself. Long out of print and unavailable on the internet, I have endeavoured to interpret the whole series and feature them within these pages. As the whole of Great Britain is covered, you should be able to find an interesting walk or two within our largest island. If you do manage to find one or more, I hope you enjoy yourself — there is much to choose from.

Walks by Area