It was only very recently that heard about the Southern Upland Way, and intrigued I ordered up the guidebook – and found to my delight it looked a most interesting walk. Fingers crossed that it lives up to expectations as I am already heading north with my walking stick et al…
After checking the midge forecast, which at the time was registering negligible (though as I write it seems to be rising rapidly), I got the very helpful guys at southernuplandway.com to arrange a trip as soon as possible.
The Southern Upland Way is the first official* coast to coast long distance path in Britain (though it was only opened in 1984), covering 212 miles (340 km) from Portpatrick to Cockburnspath and climbing to 2378 feet along the way. I am aiming to complete it all in 11 days, and hope to be able to report back soon…
It was quite a walk but I managed to complete it in the 11 days – see below for a full list of the daily reports…
*There are of course other coast to coast paths and routes: Wainwright’s Coast to Coast route is probably the most famous but that is not a national trail, Hadrian’s Wall has existed for many centuries, however as a trail Hadrian’s Wall path was only opened in 2003.
View the map in Google Maps, or here is the Google Earth KML file.