Postscript

The Pennine Way is not a life changing experience, but it is certainly a life enhancing one. It is accessible to anyone who is moderately fit; it is not the exclusive reserve of the athlete.

Sometimes remote and challenging, it is not a wilderness walk; each night provides the opportunity of a bed, most nights the prospect of a beer. The walk is not England’s longest continuous path, but it is the oldest and remains the best known.

It is not everywhere beautiful; many miles are over soggy, featureless, dreary moors and many a tedious hill is there to be climbed, seemingly just for the torment of the ascent. But it does traverse much of England’s best landscapes and throughout crosses ground that echoes to the songs of the ages.

At Kirk Yetholm, I was asked if I would ever wish to walk the route again. My response then was unequivocally negative, “Not in its entirety, no, never again.”

Now, less than a year after the walk’s conclusion, I would not be so adamant. It haunts the memory so.