Following an Old Packhorse Route Through the Hills

A Path Older Than the Map

Before turnpike roads and railways, the British hills were busy. Packhorses carried wool, salt, lead, coal, cloth and cheese across open moorland, linking abbeys, market towns and ports. The routes they followed were not always Roman or medieval; many were simply the driest, least boggy line between two places, improved with causey stones, bridges and guide stoops. Today, those old ways survive as bridleways, footpaths and byways. Walking one is a lesson in layers: trade, travel and storytelling pressed into the same ground.

Reading the Ground: Clues and Waymarks

The past is legible underfoot if you know what to look for. A holloway worn deep by hooves and feet, a line of flat stones across a peat grough, a low packhorse bridge with a narrow span, a guide stoop pointing to the next town—these are the signatures of an older economy. So are the inns and farmsteads that once offered stabling, and the boundary stones that mark parish edges.

Navigation is part map, part detective work. Use a 1:25,000 scale map to identify the right of way, then match it to the ground. Look for:

• Worn stone setts or causey stones on wet sections.
• Holloways with steep, eroded sides.
• Guide stoops, boundary stones and old gateposts.
• Packhorse bridges—often without parapets, or with low ones.
• Lines of hawthorn, ash or sycamore marking an old route.

In mist, follow compass bearings and handrails: a wall, a stream, a fence line. The path may fade, but the corridor often remains.

Planning the Day: Maps, Boots and Weather

Packhorse routes are rarely smooth. Expect rough grass, heather, peat, stones and the occasional bog. A realistic day is 8–12 miles with 400–700 metres of ascent, taking five to seven hours. Start early, especially in winter when daylight is short.

Kit matters more than pace. Wear waterproof boots with ankle support and a deep tread; trail shoes are fine in dry summer conditions but not on wet peat. Add:

• A 1:25,000 map and a compass—and know how to use them.
• Waterproof jacket and trousers, plus a spare warm layer.
• Gaiters and trekking poles for boggy sections.
• At least 1.5 litres of water and high-energy food.
• Headtorch, whistle, first-aid kit and foil blanket.

Check a specialist fell forecast before you set out. Conditions change fast on open moorland. Tell someone your route and expected return time. In summer, take midge repellent; in winter, watch for ice on stone slabs.

Books That Walk With You

A good book deepens the walk. Read before you go to understand the trade that shaped the route; carry a slim volume for rest stops; read again afterwards to make sense of what you saw. Start with Daniel Defoe’s A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1720s) and the journals of Celia Fiennes, who rode these roads in the late seventeenth century. For a modern meditation on paths, try Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways. Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain captures the attentiveness that hill walking demands. And Alfred Wainwright’s A Coast to Coast Walk remains a practical model for route-finding and stubborn affection for the fells.

Local history pamphlets, old maps and parish records are gold too. A second-hand guidebook from the 1960s will tell you what has changed—and what has not.

Walking the Route: A Sample Traverse

Imagine a linear route across open moorland: 11 miles, 600 metres of ascent, six hours. Begin at a dale-head village where a packhorse bridge crosses a stream. Follow a walled lane, then a bridleway that climbs through bracken and oak. The path soon opens onto heather moor. Here, the old causey appears as a line of grey stones, half-swallowed by peat. Follow it north-east, using a guide stoop as a checkpoint.

The middle section is the wildest. The route crosses a shallow clough, passes a ruined sheepfold, and contours around a fell side. In clear weather, the view opens to distant hills; in cloud, keep the compass handy. Descend via a long, stony track to a valley inn that once stabled packhorses. From there, a riverside footpath leads to a market town and a well-earned cup of tea.

This is not a route to rush. Allow time for photographs, map checks and the simple pleasure of standing where centuries of travellers stood.

What the Path Asks of You

Old routes are fragile. Stay on the right of way, even when it is muddy. Close gates, keep dogs on leads around livestock, and take all litter home. Do not remove stones or disturb walls. If you meet a farmer or landowner, a cheerful greeting goes a long way.

Walk with attention. Notice how the path changes from stone to grass to peat, how it avoids the wettest ground, how it links one settlement to another. The stories are not always written down; sometimes they are simply worn into the hill. Follow an old packhorse route and you join a long line of travellers—traders, monks, drovers, letter-writers and dreamers—who have all passed this way before.