Join the National Park Trail Challenge

Like to be one of the first to walk the Slow Ways National Parks Trail, connecting all of Britain’s 15 National Parks?

Not able to walk all 4,000 kilometres yourself just now? That’s fine! We’re going to do it between us!

Join our National Parks Trail Challenge this June and walk one of the 250 different sections as we collectively complete this huge trail in just one month.

Three years ago we embarked on an extremely ambitious plan to create a trail that links all 15 of the UK’s national parks, the world’s first National Park City and a string of national landscapes via Slow Ways walking routes.

The 4,000km (2,500-mile) monster-trail connects Nairn to Plymouth and includes over 250 Slow Ways routes. Walking 20km (12 miles) a day it would take just over 200 days to walk the trail, giving hikers an absolutely incredible experience in the process. It’s a little bit longer than the USA’s Appalachian Trail and could easily become just as famous. Imagine being able to say that you were part of the team that walked it for the very first time!

Although the trail got national press attention (here and here and on the radio) and hikers have walked sections already, no-one has yet completed the whole trail.

So now we want to ramp up our efforts and recruit people from all over Britain to take on this huge adventure as a collective during National Walking Month this June.

To take in all the national parks, the trail winds back and forth across the country. There are many sorts of routes to choose from – routes passing through or close to most of Britain’s major urban centres, short routes, long routes, accessible routes, coastal routes, mountainous routes, challenging routes, easy routes: there is sure to be a route for you.

This is an opportunity not just to go for an adventure, but to develop a trail that we hope will be enjoyed for generations to come. One to compete with John O’Groats to Land’s End perhaps!?

Why not take a look at the route’s Waylist HERE to see which route you might like to take on?

If you’re keen to join us in June all you need to do is:

• Sign up using this form (takes 90 seconds!)
• Tell us which route(s) you’d like to take on
• Pick your date, any day or days of June
• Then when the time comes, walk your route
• Leave a short review on the route page on our site
• Join us for an online celebration event at the end of the month!

The National Park Trail in stats

• 277 routes, from Nairn to Plymouth
• 78% already reviewed
• 47% verified (positively reviewed three times)
• 33% surveyed
• 4,040km / 2,511 miles in all
• 20 Y-grade routes – free of steps or stiles

Need an accessible route?

Routes on the trail have different levels of accessibility; you can use the reviews and surveys on individual route pages to help find routes that match your needs. 33% of routes have been surveyed by volunteers who have specifically assessed the quality of the path surface and the existence of obstacles likely to block wheelchairs, scooters and pushchairs.

Twenty of the routes on the National Park Trail are graded Y, which means that there are no flights of steps or stiles along their length. We’ve added them to this additional waylist to help you choose an accessible route. There are also some areas where two forks are suggested for the trail to include more and less accessible versions.

The trail in sections

Here’s the trail split into waylists for the national sections:

• The Scotland section
• The England North section
• The Wales section
• The England South section

Any questions?

You can get in touch with us on [email protected] or join us for a Q&A session at any of our regular Welcome to Slow Ways online workshops.