Mountains green, pleasant pastures, clouded hills – I love them all. And here you’ll find my end-to-end ‘Across England’ walk, from Land’s End to Berwick-upon-Tweed.

For my trail walks, I’ve divided England into four quadrants. There’s another section for the Across England walk and one with notes on some of the hills that I’ve climbed.

What a varied country we have. The pictures show: approaching Harwich on the Essex Way; the descent from Pen-y-Ghent, Yorkshire Dales; Combe Martin, Cornwall; Oxleas Wood, SE London; High Cup in the Northern Pennines; and Angle Tarn in the Lake District.

  • Approaching Harwich on the Essex Way
  • Descending from Pen-y-Ghent
  • Leaving Combe Martin
  • Oxleas Wood, SE London
  • Inside High Cup, N Pennines
  • Angle Tarn, Lake District

East

South of the Trent, east of the A6, north of London and the Thames Estuary. So this includes Essex, where I live and the subject of my first Cicerone guide.

North

Everything north of the Trent, plus Cheshire to get across to the Welsh border.

West

South of the Trent, west of the A6, excludes Chilterns and Thames Valley E of Oxford, then Wiltshire and Dorset and west thereof.

South

Hampshire, Berkshire, Thames valley E of Oxford, Chilterns, Hertfordshire, London, and south of the Thames Estuary.

So this includes London, where I’ve lived most of my life and the subject of my second Cicerone guide. Its two major trails, the Capital Ring and London Loop, are described on this site.

Across England

As I came to the end of my cross-Wales walk, I knew I would need something similar. So the cross-England project followed on. Same rules, same idea: mix together established trails with new but logical routes across country, and traverse a nation, a few days a year.

I started in 2006 age 55, and the aim was to get to England’s far north before my state pension hit in at age 65. I was three weeks late.

Hills

I’ve climbed most of the English Hewitts, hills over 2000ft with a relative height of 98ft (that is, height between it and the lowest contour encircling it and no higher summit).

My plan was to climb all but that’s not too likely now as in 2020 the national disruption of Covid-19 and maybe just a little physical decrepitude started to get in the way. But I’ve got good records of all my recent ascents and even some dating back over 40 years.