Day Walks In The Peak District Reviewed

Day Walks In the Peak District - Norman Taylor and Barry Pope

Price: £12.95

Weight: 209 grammes (it's a book...)

Features: 142-page paperrback book with 20 Peak District day walks between 8 and 12 miles in length, each route complete with map and photos.

Easy to use, good maps and instructions, nice pics and no blather. It would be nice if the walks were numbered to correspond to the overview map.

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The Concept Vertebrate Graphics have produced two excellent mountain biking guides -covering the Dark Peak and SW England - and this is their first walking guide. As with the well-received bike guidebooks, the new walking guide aims to cut out the blather and present the essential information in an easy to use package complete with maps and photographs.

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Features It's a paperback volume with some 20 circular day routes all between 8 and 12 miles in length. Each route follows a set format with an overview followed by a map of the walk -below- and detailed, step by step instructions. You can actually download a sample route from the Vertebrate Graphics web site for an accurate idea of the book's style.

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In Action Too many guide books seem mired in a curiously dated world of 'guidebook speak' - you know the stuff: 'Upon cresting the ridge an astonishing panorama is spread lushly before you, sheep bask seductively in the sunlight etc, blah, blah etc...

Fortunately the new Vertebrate Graphics guide has managed to avoid the guff and tells you what you need to know along with some interesting side observations in plain, normal, 21st Century English. It won't be winning any literary prizes, but then it's a guide book.

We like the basic format with an introduction, excellent maps, though you'll still need an OS or similar for on-the-ground navigation and plain, thorough, step-by-step instructions that lead you through the route and are related to the map by numbered way points. There are also some lovely, evocative photos that give you a decent idea of the sort of landscape you're about to encounter.

The 20 walks are spread across the Peak and split into three sections: 'The High Moors', 'Hills, Tors and Edges' and 'Limestone Country'. There's an overall map to help you locate the individual walks plus area maps for each section. It would be nice if the individual routes were numbered to make them easier to relate to the overview map, but it's easy enough to work out which is which.

There's a good spread both geographically and in the character of the walking with a mix of high moors and lower stuff in both Dark and White Peak. Some hard nuts will want longer days, but its easy enough to extend many of the routes on the ground with a bit of imagination and a map.