Lonewalker's Walking Diary

Photo of me at the end of the Coast to Coast

Hello and Welcome!

You've found the Walking Diary of Lonewalker, the place where I intermittently record the walks I've undertaken, paths I've followed and backpacking trips I've struggled through.

Lonewalker is my nickname of course, one I gave myself after a friend dropped out of our first long distance walk, the Coast to Coast, in 2006. I decided to continue on my own, despite my inexperience at the time and the name has sort of stuck.

My real name is Stuart Greig - often with a "W" thrown in between for good measure and to allow myself to look slightly pompous on the guide books I've written (see below). I'm an IT consultant during the week and a wanderer of the high places at weekends. Based in Cheshire I have good access to the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales and I've spent many an enjoyable weekend in both places, with the ocassional visit to Wales, Scotland and the far south.

I hope you find the website useful. I've certainly enjoyed writing the content and after that first nervous crossing of England, I've gone on to walk many long distance paths in the UK, always on my own and you will find the journals of those walks in these pages.

I've added a new section to the website - dedicated to my LEJOG walk which will be happening in 2014 (see how sure I am about that now). See the LEJOG menu option above, or click here for My LEJOG.

I've gathered together all the previous postings and put them into the new site, so anyone looking to follow my thought process from the early days will have no problem finding them - I've left them on the main site as well, just for completeness and to ensure Google searches will still find them.

As my planning continues I will add new posts to the LEJOG site only..

It has its own RSS feed, so if you're into that way of reading blogs then please add it to your reader.

Herriot Way Guide Book

I spent a few weeks at the back end of 2009 walking some wonderful paths in the Yorkshire Dales, many of which were walked as part of the research for my first guide book.

I then spent many dark evenings tapping away on the keyboard, and one or two weekends when it was just too awful to walk and about four weekends when I was laid up after my knee operation.

The guide book is for a little known, but utterly brilliant, four day walk called "The Herriot Way" It is perhaps the best short long distance path in the UK, perfect for the first time multi-day walker and indeed great as a leg stretcher for those of us who love our long walks.

The guide book is available either as a download in PDF format, or in a pocket-sized printed format for anyone wanting to walk it in a clockwise direction. You can buy it from it's dedicated website: www.herriotway.com

Tributaries Walk Guide Book

Having enjoyed the process of writing the Herriot Way Guide Book, I embarked on another project, on behalf of Mike Schofield at Brigantes English Walks. Mike had sketched out the route for a seven-day walk around the Dales, following the rivers, becks and tributaries that run through the valleys of the National Park. He hadn't had the time available to turn these notes and ideas into a book, so had asked if I would be interested. I, of course, jumped at the chance.

I spent several weeks walking the route, clarifying the ideas and notes and compiling a more detailed narrative. The book was again compiled over a series of weekends and evenings and sent to Mike for approval.

The seven day walk shares a few miles of common ground with the Herriot Way, but covers a lot more varied and diverse scenery.

The full seven-day walk is around 95 miles long. You can find more information and indeed buy the book from it's dedicated website: www.tributarieswalk.co.uk