Britain's first National Trail, along the backbone of England from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm over the Scottish border, in its sixteen days: Kinder and Bleaklow, the Yorkshire Dales, High Cup and Cross Fell, Hadrian's Wall and the Cheviots.
Best season: All year; mid-May to September is best. The trail can be walked all year, National Trails says, but the weather is usually best from mid-May to September. Expect snow on the northern hills in winter. The Pennines are wet, about 2.5 m of rain and snow a year, and on the tops the wind can bring the temperature near zero even in summer. Several stays open only part of the year. Before you go
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Plan your days
Your dates
Checking the seasons, closures and current conditions for today…
Sixteen days, the National Trail's own; most walkers allow 16 to 19, National Trails says. Four day ends are not villages: Standedge and the Calder Valley, where the nights are a short way off the route, the inn at Tan Hill, and Windy Gyle on the Cheviot ridge, where walkers stay below or take an inn's shuttle from Byrness. The villages on the way make the long days shorter. Choose a plan, or pick your own start, finish and nights below.
16-day plan
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Flat (<5%)
Each day in its own colour, numbered where it starts; the rest of the Pennine Way in grey. Select a day for its elevation and 3D flyover.
Make your own plan
Changing where you stay suggests a new number of days: the fewest that keep each day under 8 h of walking and in daylight, where a place to stay allows.
Choose your nights (15 nights)
Days end where the route has a stay, a camp or a village.
Stage 2: Over Black Hill and across Wessenden Moor to the A62 at Standedge: 18 km. Standedge has little: stay in Diggle or Marsden.
StandedgeStay in or via Diggle
Where the path crosses the A62 on the moor, with little there: National Trails points to Diggle or Marsden below, each about 2 to 2.5 km off the route.
OpenStreetMap lists at least 3 places to stay within about 1300 m of Diggle; TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
Stage 3: By Blackstone Edge, the reservoirs and Stoodley Pike down to the Calder valley: 18 km. Hebden Bridge is 1.6 km off the route.
Overnight
Mankinholes
Hostel or bunkhouse
Pick a date to check the season.
Season
Not checked
Booking
Not published
Contact
Not published
Where the path crosses the Calder valley at Charlestown. Hebden Bridge is about 1.6 km off the route; Mankinholes, with its hostel, is on the way down.
Or a room in the village. OpenStreetMap lists at least 2 places to stay within about 1300 m of Hebden Bridge; TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
Stage 8: Over Great Shunner Fell and along Swaledale to the Tan Hill Inn: 27 km. Keld, before the last climb, makes a shorter day.
Overnight
Tan Hill
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
Season
Not checked
Booking
Not published
Contact
Not published
The inn on the moor, at 528 m the highest pub in Britain, with rooms, a bunkhouse and camping, and nothing else; no public transport. Keld, about 7 km back, makes the day shorter.
Stage 9: Across the Stainmore Gap to Middleton-in-Teesdale: 27 km. The Bowes Loop, an official variant, leaves at Trough Heads farm; our line follows the main route.
Stage 10: Up Teesdale past High Force and Cauldron Snout, then over to High Cup and down to Dufton: 34 km. National Trails suggests splitting it at Forest-in-Teesdale or Langdon Beck.
Stage 11: Over Great Dun Fell and Cross Fell, the highest point of the trail, and down by Garrigill to Alston: 32 km, the toughest day, with over 1,000 m of climb. Greg's Hut, a bothy, and Garrigill are the places to stop on the way. Dryburn Bridge between Garrigill and Alston is closed after flood damage: follow the signed diversion.
Stage 13: Along Hadrian's Wall, through Wark Forest and over Shitlington Crag to Bellingham: 35 km. Once Brewed makes a shorter day. At Bellingham a short section is closed from 12 October 2026 to 1 January 2027 for works on the flood embankment: follow the diversion.
Booking method not publishedA walkers' guesthouse; its two-night stay with a minibus pick-up and drop-off splits the Cheviots into two days. A few camping pitches, booked in advance only.
Stage 15: Into the Cheviots past the Roman camps at Chew Green and over Beefstand Hill to Windy Gyle: 22 km. There are no facilities in the Cheviots, only two emergency refuges.
Windy GyleStay in or via Byrness
A summit on the border ridge. There is nowhere to stay in the Cheviots, only two emergency refuges: walkers split the traverse by staying off the route below, or take the Forest View Inn's two-night shuttle from Byrness.
Find your own accommodation; TrailSplits has not checked what is open.
Days end at a stage end with a refuge or a village, or in a village the route passes through. Walking times are measured on each stage's mapped line by our route analysis (terrain heights and our hiking-time model, moving time only): no time is published for these stages.Outside Switzerland our walking times often run short of the times route operators publish; treat them as optimistic. Running times use 7.5 km/h plus one hour per 700 m of climb: a steady reference, not a prediction. Daylight is sunrise to sunset where the day starts; the time left is for breaks, meals and delays.Refuge dates come from the operator's own pages; when they are not published, we say so. For villages we count the places to stay OpenStreetMap lists; we have not checked which are open. A plan is not a booking: reserve every night before you commit to these day lengths.
Huts and stays, stage by stage
Where each stage ends, the 2026 and 2027 seasons the operator publishes, and how to book. Read from the operators' pages on 13 October 2026; each stage page shows the sources and the grade profile.
Loading the forecast for low point (108 m) and high point (890 m)…
Weather by month
Typical weather on this trail: at the lowest point (108 m) and the highest point (890 m). Select a month to see why it is rated as it is.
Monthly climate averages and daylight
Month
Weather
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Good
Good
Good
Good
Good
Good
Good
Mixed
Mixed
Stages rated good on typical weather
0/16
0/16
1/16
12/16
16/16
16/16
16/16
16/16
16/16
12/16
2/16
0/16
High point, day / night
2°/-2°
2°/-2°
4°/-2°
7°/0°
11°/2°
13°/5°
15°/7°
14°/7°
12°/5°
8°/2°
5°/0°
2°/-2°
Low point, day / night
7°/1°
7°/1°
9°/2°
12°/3°
15°/6°
18°/9°
20°/11°
19°/10°
17°/8°
13°/6°
9°/3°
7°/1°
Rain, mm
218
178
150
109
114
118
145
157
156
208
207
230
Snow at high point
Possible
Possible
Possible
Possible
–
–
–
–
–
–
Possible
Possible
Daylight
7 h 45
9 h 40
11 h 44
14 h 02
16 h 04
17 h 19
16 h 51
15 h 03
12 h 50
10 h 37
8 h 29
7 h 14
Source: TerraClimate 1991–2020 monthly averages. Averages for the area at each point’s elevation (4 km grid, corrected for height). Not a forecast or a report of current trail conditions. Snow at the high point is estimated with a simple snowpack model from these temperatures and precipitation, not observed; steep islands and high summits can hold more snow than it shows. Daylight is for the 15th of each month. Hut, transport and park seasons are separate: check them for your dates.
Before you go
Prepare for the Pennine Way
Arrange your stays, food and travel first, then check conditions again near departure.
Book your nights ahead
Places to stay are limited in places, National Trails says, so book ahead. There is no general right to wild camp in England: ask the landowner, and mind the fire risk on the moors. Baggage-transfer services run along the trail. Several stays open only part of the year: Crowden's campsite from late March to late October, the Forest View Inn at Byrness from April, and the Friends of Nature hostel at Kirk Yetholm is closed for the 2026 season.
Diversions now
National Trails lists two diversions. At Bellingham, a short section is closed from 12 October 2026 to 1 January 2027 for works on the flood embankment; a diversion is signed. Dryburn Bridge between Alston and Garrigill is closed after flood damage; follow the signed diversion.
Day 10, Middleton-in-Teesdale to Dufton, is 34 km and day 13, Greenhead to Bellingham, 35 km: Langdon Beck and Once Brewed split them. Day 11 crosses Cross Fell with over 1,000 m of climb. The Cheviots, days 15 and 16, have no facilities, only two emergency refuges.
Much of the trail crosses open moor and bog, flagged in places, on paths that are hard to follow in mist. Carry a map and compass and know how to use them, and turn back in bad weather on the tops.
Trains reach Hebden Bridge, 1.6 km off the route in the Calder valley, Gargrave, and Horton in Ribblesdale on the Settle to Carlisle line (Northern). Further north the buses are few: the 681 from Alston and Greenhead to Haltwhistle station, and the 680 from Bellingham to Hexham (Go North East). Tan Hill and Dufton have no public transport.
Bus 81 runs from Kirk Yetholm to Kelso, Monday to Saturday, with no service on 25 and 26 December or 1 and 2 January; some journeys run in school terms only. From Kelso, buses go on to Berwick-upon-Tweed and its station.
Prepare each day while you still have a connection: on the moors and in the Cheviots the signal is often weak or gone.
Keep your route and maps on your phone for places without a signal. For multi-day trips, prepare them in the installed TrailSplits app.
Open this trail in the app.Install TrailSplits, then open this trail there. On iPhone, downloads in a browser may not be available in the installed app.
Choose your route or stages. Choose Prepare offline above. Wait for the route and maps to finish downloading.
Try it before leaving coverage. Switch offline, close and reopen the app, then use My Hikes to start navigation. Repeat for every part you will need.
Saving a bookmark is not a map download. Storage can be cleared by your device; keep a backup map for remote trips.
Pennine Way — frequently asked questions
How long is the Pennine Way, and how many days does it take?
Most walkers allow 16 to 19 days, National Trails says; it gives 268 miles (431 km) counting the Bowes Loop and the alternatives, and its sixteen days add up to about 254 miles (409 km), in 16 sections on our map. The guide's day planner offers a 16-day plan on the overnight stops, and you can choose your own nights.
When is the best time to walk the Pennine Way?
All year; mid-May to September is best. The trail can be walked all year, National Trails says, but the weather is usually best from mid-May to September.
How do you get to the start of the Pennine Way, and back?
Edale has a station on the Hope Valley line between Manchester and Sheffield (Northern), with trains all year. The "Connect your journey" section has the travel details, with 2 more travel notes.
Do you need to book on the Pennine Way?
Places to stay are limited in places, National Trails says, so book ahead.
Can I download the GPX of the Pennine Way?
Yes: the whole route and every section, free, for a GPS watch or a phone. The guide also saves your plan for offline use in the app.
Is the Pennine Way open? Where are closures announced?
Closures we know of are shown on the days and sections they affect, in the day planner and on the stage pages. We watch 3 official notice pages (National Trails: Bellingham diversion; National Trails: Pennine Way diversions; National Trails: Dryburn Bridge closure); the date we last read them is shown with the notices on this page. Check them again before you set off.
Route & sources
About this map
National Trails gives 268 miles (431 km), counting both sides of the Bowes Loop, the spur to the Cheviot summit and the alternative routes; its sixteen days add up to about 254 miles (409 km). National Trails publishes no stage times for its days, only distances, so the times here are measured on our line. The line here is the route on OpenStreetMap (the Pennine Way's eleven section relations, from the planet of 11 October 2026): 411 km from Edale to Kirk Yetholm by the main route, without the Bowes Loop, cut at the sixteen day ends. Much of it crosses open moor: carry a map and compass. Our climb is measured on terrain heights, so short steep banks are smoothed out.
Official guidance and mapped-source comparison checked 13 October 2026. Map data is a route reference, not confirmation of today's path, weather or accommodation availability.