Blogs

Andrew Hall, Campaigns and Communications Officer at Campaign for National Parks takes a look at what the future might hold for National Parks

The WI is proud to be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. Encouraging people to walk and make the most of the beautiful green spaces across the UK will have endless benefits, from personal health and wellbeing, to reducing social isolation, something that is at the very heart of the WI’s ethos.

Hilary Flockhart, Ramblers volunteer, has been digging through the archives to uncover the story of Tom Stephenson and the passing of the 1949 Act.

We hear about Paula's challenges of overcoming the fear on her first solo long-distance hike, 5-6 days along the Snowdonia Slate Trail in North Wales.

Engaging pupils and families from White Rock Primary School with a walk on Dartmoor.

Tracing the line of the 1914-18 battle front, the Western Front Way is a proposed 725km path for peace and remembrance that runs from the Swiss border in the south, through France and Belgium to the North Sea. As the first 140km section is unveiled, Beth Salt explains how the project got off the ground.

Ramblers Scotland's campaigns and policy manager Helen Todd urges the Scottish walking community to consider why countryside looks the way it does - so we can better understand and influence the debates that decide its future.

Last year was the 80th anniversary of the Pennine Journey – a lesser known route devised by Alfred Wainwright and subsequently turned into an official 247-mile circular route from Settle in North Yorkshire thanks to the efforts of two passionate long-distance walkers.

Alison Hallas, Ramblers policy officer, looks back at the history of our involvement with National Parks, and our current work supporting a new review into the future of protected landscapes

We are blessed in England and Wales with a fantastic network of paths – nearly 140,000 miles of rights of way (enough to stretch round the earth five times or half way to the moon!). However, there are thousands of historical rights of way which have not been recorded and if they are not claimed by 2026 they will be lost – forever!