Slow Ways started back in 2020, with this website launching in 2021.
Since then, people from across Britain have contributed to making Slow Ways a success.
In this post, I’m going to share a collection of maps that visualise and celebrate our collective effort. You can explore most of these maps yourself by playing with the map options on our home page.
Thank you so much to everyone who’s been part of Slow Ways so far. Slow Ways would be nothing without out you.
Thousands of people have each contributed a small amount to Slow Ways. And a small number have contributed thousands of times.
As a result, we’ve created a walking network that is becoming larger, stronger and more inspiring by the day.
Some people might want to walk a 7km (4 mile) Slow Way, like Carpen between Cardiff and Penarth.
Others combine tens or hundreds of our community-created routes to design longer trails. The Land’s End to John O’Groats route below was created in a few seconds using our routing feature.
While Google will give a way to walk and Ordnance Survey shows most of the paths – this route is made from 117 Slow Ways that have been created by people dozens of people. 79% have been reviewed, 43% are triple-checked and verified as good to follow and 23% have been surveyed.
Whatever the length or purpose, route by route and review by review – together, we are creating a national resource that is not only a pleasure to build but is also inspiring people to go further and explore routes they might not otherwise have taken.
This post is an update on how it is all coming together – and a call for lots more people to join in.
Slow Ways is based on a skeleton of nearly 7,000 links connecting about 2,500 neighbouring towns, cities and villages, with many more neighbourhoods, villages and hamlets in between.
Our collective mission has been to find and share good routes for every potential link in the network.
So far, the Slow Ways community has shared 10,265 routes covering 148,708 km, or 92,403 miles.
While simply drawing all these routes is a significant achievement, the bigger challenge is checking them all to make sure they are good enough to use.
Our brilliant community of contributors has posted 17,801 reviews covering a total of 204,398 km, or 127,007 miles. These reviews include more than three million words of guidance and advice, all with the aim of making the routes and the network better for others.
The map below shows 6,207 routes that have been rated three to five stars.
An amazing 4,198 routes are rated four or five stars. You can walk from Inverness to Penzance and from Bangor to Dover entirely on routes rated four or five stars.
There are 2,702 verified Slow Ways routes in the network. You can see these highlighted below.
When someone reviews a route, they are asked whether it is good enough to be part of the Slow Ways network. A “yes” scores one point, a “maybe” scores no points and a “no” scores minus one point.
If a route scores three or more points, it becomes a verified Slow Way – our peer-review standard for a route that is good enough to be part of the network.
Thanks to some of our more committed contributors, one in five routes has been surveyed and graded with highly valuable additional accessibility information.
This is an incredible, citizen-powered collective achievement, but there is still a lot more to explore.
The map below shows 3,310 routes that have no reviews and still need trailblazing.
Some 2,416 routes have been flagged because of potential accuracy, safety or access issues. Currently, 303 links – around 4.5% of the network – are served only by a route that has been flagged for some reason.
We believe that it should always be possible to walk safely between neighbourhoods and neighbouring villages, towns and cities.
So far, 61% of links have at least one route option with a positive review and no flags. A total of 91% of links have at least one route option with no flags, although that route may not have been checked yet.
That includes the first route uploaded to the Slow Ways website – Pensti one, which connects Penzance and St Ives.
But don’t worry, thanks to five Slow Wayers Pensti three is verified and has four stars!
A further 4,543 routes have received just one or two reviews. Just imagine if all of the routes below were highly rated and verified!
It would be brilliant to have your help improving and checking more of the Slow Ways network.
Simply choose, walk or wheel, rate and review any route on this site. You don’t have to be a trailblazer. Enjoying and checking a route that has already been reviewed is super helpful, as it gives even more people the confidence to try it.
Norwhov five by Katy Walters, between Norwich and Hoveton, has been reviewed 19 times.
Or perhaps you have seen a Slow Ways route but have local knowledge of a better way to go?
There are often just one, two or perhaps three good ways to walk between towns and cities. Harkna, the Slow Ways link between Harrogate and Knaresborough, has eight route options – more route options than any other link in the network. Depending on their needs and interests, local people have plenty of good options – including the opportunity to combine two routes to create a loop.
If you are new to Slow Ways and are looking for a project, a great place to start is by exploring all your local routes.
You can save these to a waylist (a list and map of routes) to see where you are planning to go and what you have already done. You can start a waylist by visiting our Journey Planner and starting to save routes.
The map below shows routes from Exeter, where I live, to neighbouring settlements. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed walking these routes – going for adventures, discovering new places, putting the landscape together in my mind and getting to know the region ever more deeply.
If people and small groups from every town and city joined in by checking their local routes, we could quickly connect the vast majority of the network.
This last map was made by our friends at Urban Good CIC. It visualises all the connections we are trying to make, check, rate and verify.
What would Britain be like with all these routes thriving and lots of people enjoying them?
We would love your help with that – and it’s as easy as going for a walk.
To get started, sign up here, choose a route, walk it and then leave a review!
You could:
> Walk and review just one route
> Walk and review two routes
> Do any route, choose one that needs verifying or try one of these target routes
> Use the journey planner to design a trail, web, challenge or project
> Get a team together to walk and check all the routes in your area
Got questions? See our How to get started page.
Need some help or have an idea brewing? You can email us at [email protected] or WhatsApp us on +44 7513 437207.
Have you seen Good Ways yet?
What if we took inspiration from Slow Ways and created a network connecting every neighbourhood, station, stop and public destination? And what if we shared thousands of short routes and loops too?
Good Ways is our new app and project to share the best active routes for everyone across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. We want to make it easier for everyone to enjoy Good Ways for walking, running, cycling, wheeling, horse-riding, skating, swimming, paddling, pushchairs and wheelchairs – whatever their ability, interests or needs.
Sound good? Find out more and become a Founding Member here.