Back Scotland's Great Trails French Great Trail Dutch Long Distance Routes Polish

Scotland's Great Trails

A typical waymark, on the Southern Upland Way.

Scotland's Great Trails are long-distance "people-powered" trails in Scotland,[1] analogous to the National Trails of England and Wales or the Grande Randonnée paths of France. The designated routes are primarily intended for walkers, but may have sections suitable for cyclists and horse-riders;[2] one of the trails, the Great Glen Canoe Trail, is designed for canoeists and kayakers.[3] The trails range in length from 40 km (25 mi) to 340 km (210 mi), and are intended to be covered over several days, either as a combination of day trips or as an end-to-end trip.[2]

In order to be classified as one of Scotland’s Great Trails, a route must fulfil certain criteria. The route must be at least 40 km (25 mi) in length, and be clearly waymarked with a dedicated symbol. It is expected that visitor services will be present along the way, and that the route will have an online presence to help visitors in planning their journey.[4] Trails are required to run largely off-road, with less than 20% of the route on tarmac.[5] NatureScot is the custodian of the Scotland's Great Trails brand, maintaining the official list and providing some finance and publicity, the responsibility however for creating and maintaining each route lies with the local authorities through which a route passes.[6] There are 29 routes, providing 3,000 km (1,900 mi) of trails in total.[6] Additionally, the northernmost 10 kilometres (6 mi) section of the Pennine Way between the Anglo-Scottish border and Kirk Yetholm lies within Scotland, although it is designated as one of the National Trails of England.

The route of each of the Great Trails is marked with coloured diamonds on Ordnance Survey Explorer (1:25000) and Landranger (1:50000) maps; the SGT logo of a thistle within a hexagon is also used to highlight the routes at the 1:25000 scale.[7][8]

  1. ^ "Scotland's Great Trails: the official guide". www.scotlandsgreattrails.com. NatureScot. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  2. ^ a b "FAQs". www.scotlandsgreattrails.com. NatureScot. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  3. ^ "Great Glen Canoe Trail". www.scotlandsgreattrails.com. NatureScot. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  4. ^ "Arran Coastal Way recognised as one of 'Scotland's Great Trails'". Arran Coastal Way. 20 June 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  5. ^ Wood-Gee, V. (2014). SNH Commissioned Report 743: Mull long distance route: A socio-economic study (PDF) (Report). Scottish Natural Heritage. p. 11. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  6. ^ a b "About Scotland's Great Trails". www.scotlandsgreattrails.com. NatureScot. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Legend: 1: 25000 scale" (PDF). Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  8. ^ "Legend: 1: 50000 scale" (PDF). Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · View on Wikipedia

Developed by Tubidy