Best UK Long-Distance Trails for Backpacking
The UK's National Trails are officially designated long-distance walking routes in England and Wales, waymarked and maintained to a consistent standard, often running for well over a hundred miles through some of the country's best upland and coastal scenery. Scotland has its own equivalent system, Scotland's Great Trails, plus a handful of tougher, unofficial backpacking routes that never got a waymark but are walked every year regardless. All of them can be tackled as a multi-day trip carrying a tent, and each has its own character, distance and access rules. Here's an honest overview of six of the best, to help you pick one that matches your experience and the time you've got.
Pennine Way
England's oldest National Trail, opened in 1965, running 268 miles from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm just over the Scottish border. Most backpackers allow 16 to 19 days, tackling long, often boggy stages across the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, and Northumberland National Park before the final crossing of the Cheviots. It's remote and exposed to weather rather than technically difficult, and widely regarded as one of the tougher National Trails to complete end to end.
Wild camping along the Pennine Way is mostly informal: outside Dartmoor and Scotland, permission is technically required from landowners, though discreet, brief high-ground camping is tolerated in many stretches. See our wild camping law guide for the full legal picture.
West Highland Way
Scotland's first officially designated long-distance route, opened in 1980, running 96 miles from Milngavie near Glasgow to Fort William at the foot of Ben Nevis. Most walkers take 6 to 9 days, and the terrain builds steadily in seriousness: gentle lowland paths and forest tracks near Glasgow give way to increasingly wild highland scenery around Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe. It's a popular first long-distance trail for that reason — a genuine taste of the Highlands without the full commitment of a route like the Cape Wrath Trail.
Because it's entirely in Scotland, the West Highland Way benefits from Scotland's general right of responsible access, so wild camping is legal on most unenclosed ground along the route, subject to the usual leave-no-trace principles and any local byelaws — see our wild camping law guide for details.
South West Coast Path
The longest National Trail in the country at 630 miles, tracing the entire coastline from Minehead in Somerset around Devon and Cornwall to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Very few people walk it in one go — a fast through-hike takes around a month, a relaxed pace with rest days stretches to seven or eight weeks — so most backpackers tackle a section rather than the whole trail. It's relentlessly up-and-down, climbing the equivalent of four times the height of Everest over its full length, but rarely technical.
As with the rest of England, there's no general right to wild camp along the South West Coast Path, and most of the coastline is farmland, National Trust land, or built-up, so campsites and permission-based pitches are the realistic option for most of the route. See our wild camping law guide for where the exceptions are.
Pembrokeshire Coast Path
Wales's first National Trail, opened in 1970, covering 186 miles of dramatic coastline between St Dogmaels in the north and Amroth in the south. Typical itineraries run 12 to 15 days, though fit hikers can do it faster. Like the South West Coast Path, it's a trail of constant short, steep climbs and descents around headlands and coves rather than sustained high-mountain walking, and the cumulative ascent over the full route is comparable to climbing Everest.
Wild camping in Wales sits under the same general rules as England — permission is legally required from the landowner, and most of the coast path crosses private or National Trust land — so plan around campsites and coastal bunkhouses rather than assuming you can pitch freely. Full detail in our wild camping law guide.
Offa's Dyke Path
A 177-mile National Trail following the England-Wales border from Chepstow in the south to Prestatyn on the north Wales coast, much of it tracking the earthwork built on the orders of the Mercian king Offa in the 8th century. Most walkers allow around 12 to 14 days. The trail is varied rather than uniformly tough — river valleys and farmland in the south, the Shropshire hills in the middle, and a genuinely mountainous finish through the Clwydian Range in the north — which makes it a good option for backpackers who want scenic variety without a trail as consistently demanding as the Pennine Way.
As it runs entirely through England and Wales, the same permission-based rules apply throughout: wild camping isn't a general right anywhere on the route, so check our wild camping law guide before assuming you can pitch on the hills near the border.
Cape Wrath Trail
The toughest and wildest route on this list, and the only one that isn't an official waymarked trail: roughly 230 miles from Fort William to the lighthouse at Cape Wrath, Britain's most north-westerly point. There's no fixed line and no waymarking — route-finding through pathless, boggy, sometimes trackless Highland terrain is part of the challenge, which is why most guides suggest allowing 16 to 22 days and recommend it only for backpackers with solid navigation and wild camping experience already under their belt. River crossings can be dangerous after heavy rain, and resupply points are far apart.
The reward is that, running through some of the remotest country in Scotland, it benefits fully from Scotland's statutory right of responsible access — wild camping is legal on almost all of the unenclosed ground you'll cross, which is just as well given how far apart the villages are. See our wild camping law guide for the access rules that apply.
How to choose
Match the trail to where you actually are, not where you want to be in a year's time. If you've never done a multi-day backpacking trip before, the West Highland Way is the standout first choice: well-waymarked, well-served by accommodation and campsites, and a genuine taste of Highland scenery without remote navigation or serious river crossings. The Pembrokeshire Coast Path and a section of the South West Coast Path are good coastal alternatives at a similar fitness level, with the advantage that you can walk any stretch you like without committing to the whole thing.
Once you've got a few multi-day trips behind you and are comfortable navigating with a map and compass in poor visibility, Offa's Dyke Path and the Pennine Way step things up — longer days, more remote sections, and in the Pennine Way's case, a reputation for genuinely bad weather and bog that catches out underprepared walkers. Save the Cape Wrath Trail for when you've got real wild camping and navigation experience: it's unmarked, remote, and unforgiving of mistakes, but it's also, by most accounts, the best wild backpacking left in Britain. Whichever trail you pick, check our backpacking gear list and tent buying guide before you go, and read up on where you can legally pitch along the way.