The British Ramblers Association has 143,000 members. They swarm over countryside where ancient routes to market trod by English and Welsh peasants are enshrined in law. Walkers on 208,000km of public rights of way are allowed to open farm gates, split herds and, if the farmer has planted crops over the path, trample those crops.
But only dwindling numbers tackle any of Britain’s 19 National Trails. These range from the self-explanatory South-West Coast Path to the more opaque Peddars Way. In the 1960s the 430km Pennine Way was churned by hordes of ramblers into a mud slick thirty metres wide. When I walked it in high summer a few years ago I took a tent. I thought I’d be banished to the lawns of overflowing hostels. The tent turned out to be dead weight. I had whole buildings to myself and met three other walkers, all retired.
The decline of the long-distance walk is a cultural shift. Many Britons now wouldn’t contemplate holidaying at home, especially in the chilly north where the classic trails are. They chase the sun. The young focus on Europe, where food and fun are done with finesse. They enjoy superior beaches and ski slopes, though they themselves are overall less active. Doing something truly arduous in your free time is not the idea. The Continent can also be relatively cheap. With no-frills airfares you can, perversely, spend less weekending at a French resort than going out in London. And though rambling is as popular as ever—and 20s to 30s walking groups are the new marriage market—many don’t have time for a week-long bash through entire counties. That would need the patience of a saint.
Against this background a friend and I decided to walk St Cuthbert’s Way: two Australians tramping 96km from southern Scotland to northern England, midweek in mid-November. The trail opened in 1996, a rare joint effort by local bureaucracies. They all wanted tourists to visit the Borders, a barren region outshone by the Highlands to the north and Yorkshire to the south.
Rodney and I begin in Melrose, where Cuthbert, seventh-century monk, began his ministry. As we set out, I consider what this man might teach today’s rambler. He was a tireless missionary who roamed far and wide. He loved nature and solitude, took life at a slow pace and never liked being far from the sea—which is where we’re headed. He befriended animals,