'Connecting UK' a walk in the park!

A FORMER geography teacher is on a mission to connect every town, city and national landscape in Britain through safe and accessible walking routes.

- By Steph Spyro

Dan Raven-Ellison started work on the SlowWays network during the pandemic.

It began as a digital map created by volunteers during lockdown to highlight the best walking trails between all of Britain’s main towns.

Thousands of people have since contributed to nearly 87,000 miles of routes across the country.

This summer's challenge is to get volunteers to collectively walk every step of the 2,500 miles of trails linking all 15 of the UK’s national parks to help develop one route that people will be able to enjoy for years to come.

Web developer Dan, from Ellesmere, in Shropshire, said: “I just began to realise that you can make your way around the country fairly easily by car or by train using the existing maps we have.