What is it?

The Scottish National Trail (SNT) is a continuous route of about 870km which starts at Kirk Yetholm in the Borders and ends at Cape Wrath. 

I say “starts” because it really does make sense to go South to North, although the other direction is evidently possible. However I’d suggest that it is less advisable for several reasons which I will touch on later. 

Cape Wrath is a fittingly wild and inaccessible place to end up and as it also seems to be the furthest point on mainland Britain from Westminster. To many people that in itself confers significant merit.

Meanwhile Kirk Yetholm sits conveniently at the end of the Pennine Way and it is for this reason that I decided that logistically it made sense to fly to Newcastle and begin with a little 5 day warm up along Hadrian’s Wall and the Pennine Way. For me this worked well and brought the total distance to around the 1000km mark quite neatly.

It uses a number of pre-existing trails which are in general well maintained and well marked, but for the most part astonishingly unfrequented. But it also goes off into wilder terrain where you will need to navigate your own route across country. For me this was part of its appeal. 

There are also a number of river crossings and these (as ever) can be tricky after heavy rain. See the Hazards post.

From the Walk Highlands website I have created a table of the stages (see Files section) with the Boot Rating and the Bog Rating. These were initially useful, but in the end once you have hardened up a bit you just take everything as it comes and accept that for the last few weeks you’ll have wet feet. For planning purposes though the distances and timings on the table were always handy.

My motto by the end was “Damp is the new Dry”. Or in other words “You are not really wet until your feet are not touching bottom”.