The first of our webworld columns from TGO magazine, but in this version, the links work. Plus tell us about your fave walking route sites...
We held Cameron McNeish over an open sandwich toaster until he
agreed to let us write a monthly web watch column for TGO. This is
the first from the March issue covering walking route sites, the text
is just the same as in the magazine, but the links are clickable. Of
course you can try clicking your fingers at the magazine article, but
trust us, nothing will happen.
And if you have a favourite routes site of your own or reckon
we've missed a sitting duck, use the forum link at the bottom to tell
us all about it.
The daddy of online routes sites is
Walking World -
www.walkingworld.com
- with over 1,850 UK walking routes. Select a route using the
excellent search facility and you get a detailed description, plus a
ready-marked A4 OS extract. Print 'em out and off you go. The only
downside is an annual £14.95 membership fee, but there are a
selection of free routes so you can try before you buy. Excellent
site.
The self-styled 'web's favourite walking sit is
Go4aWalk -
go4awalk.com -
another subscription site with a coincidentally identical £14.95
annual membership fee... Again has an impressive coverage, but the
site is very busy and the search engine isn't as easy to use. The
downloadable routes include a description and route diagram, but no
OS map.
If you recoil at the idea of paying for your routes, then check out
Walking Britain -
www.walkingbritain.co.uk
- which is, in the great internet tradition absolutely free and a
labour of love by editor Lou Johnson. Updated regularly, there's a
big selection of UK walks complete with simple diagrammatic route map
and detailed description. Scottish coverage is a little thin, but
then it's free, gratis, without payment.
North of the border?
Scotland Online -
www.scotlandonline.com
- features an outdoors section complete with a good selection of free
routes compiled by Ken Crocket. No search function, so you'll be
scrolling through the page, but there's a wide selection from the
classics to lesser-known Corbetts complete with simple map and a
reasonable, but short description. Not bad.
If you like your routes longer than average, then the
National
Trails site -
www.nationaltrail.co.uk
- is the place to go. It covers the major official LDPs with the
basic facts plus links through to individual trail web sites where
you'll find the detailed stuff. Dream time...
That's just scratching the surface, but it's not a bad start
really. And the web's littered with small, individual sites with some
superb local routes. So if you've got a favourite, or a site of your
own, come and share it with the rest of us using the forum link
below. For a few more sites, check out the OM links section..
