"Join us for a new national tradition: checking and rechecking Slow Ways throughout the week of midsummer, 16-25 June
Calling everyone who loves walking, running and wheeling!
We are busy creating a hugely ambitious national walking network that joins every town and city in Great Britain.
If this sounds good to you, please accept our invitation to our Great Waycheck weeks across mid-summer and mid-winter, and we’d love your company!
We want to make sure Slow Ways across Great Britain are open and ready to be enjoyed… and we’re looking for thousands of people to join up and check part of the country.
Want to chat about your waycheck plans, hear what other people are up to, ask questions or suggest ideas? Join one of our check-ins on the 25th of May, or the Q&A on the 17th of May: details here!
Beating the bounds
We’re taking inspiration from the old ‘beating the bounds’ tradition, in which people would walk the boundaries of their parish once a year. The older people would lead the younger, creating and understanding their landscape with their very footsteps.
As the Slow Ways network becomes established (and it’s happening! 1 in 8 Slow Ways now have a verified option, with trustworthy trails from Manchester to Ledbury and Cardiff to Brighton) we are looking forward to a time that the whole country is networked up.
A verified network will still need once-overs, once or twice a year. Hence the Great Waychecks! A future tradition, starting now.
Could you say you were there at the very first?
It’s a mission that matters
You’ll be helping to create a network not just for walking and wheeling, but for joy, health, love, ideas, creativity, relationships, communities, tackling the climate crisis, connecting to nature and more.
It’ll be fun too. Some people will walk multiple routes on their own, others will form teams to check all of their town’s routes in a single day before having a celebratory get-together.
To be part of the Great Slow Ways Summer Waycheck, simply travel and check as many Slow Ways as you can between June 16th and 25th.
The network progress so far, showing verified, triple-checked routes in purple. Plenty still to do!
You can take part on your own, in a group, with an organisation, as a community or as part of a guided walk. You can walk, run, wheel, bimble or yomp – it all counts.
Up for it? Sign up below and we’ll keep you updated and send you more details, a toolkit, and the schedule of guided walks.
Slow Ways so far
Slow Ways is a grassroots initiative to create a national network of walking routes. The routes connect all of Great Britain’s towns and cities, making it easier for people to imagine, plan and enjoy walking and wheeling journeys between places.
So far 8,000 walking routes have been suggested by volunteers. Our current challenge is to check them all – that’s 120,000km of routes! It’s a big challenge, but totally doable with enough people.
You can walk and review any time, but the waycheck will be a big push with energy and fanfare.
Slow Ways is supported by the National Lottery Community Fund.": https://stories.slowways.org/the-slow-ways-swarm-how-far-can-we-walk-in-a-weekend-3/