England’s 100 most popular hiking trails

From the South Downs to Hadrian’s Wall, we explore England’s most popular hiking trails

Whether you’re an experienced hiker in need of fresh ideas or a first-timer hoping to get outdoors more, our list of England’s most popular hiking trails offers a wealth of options.

Home to over 100,000 trails, AllTrails is one of the world’s leading hiking apps. It has over 20 million users globally and is widely downloaded across the UK.

With reviews running in the hundreds of thousands, we believe the ‘AllTrails method’ is a great way to explore the country’s finest footpaths. We’ve selected England’s most popular hiking trails from the app’s archives, but there are of course thousands more to choose from. Over 7,500 in fact, and counting.

Everyone will have an opinion on what constitutes a great trail and popularity certainly does not equate to ‘the best’. If you prefer to hike in solitude then perhaps this list is best used as an index of trails to avoid! Either way, we hope you find it useful.

Many of the trails incorporate sections of England’s National Trails, long-distance footpaths or national parks. Where possible, we’ve linked to our content that covers the region in more depth.

England’s most popular hiking trails

AllTrails user reviews are calculated using a five-star rating system with one star being terrible, two stars poor, three stars average, four stars good and five stars excellent.

To find England’s most popular hiking trails, we’ve selected the highest-rated hikes according to their average rating on AllTrails.

1. Castleton, Mam Tor and the Great Ridge Walk

Location: Peak District National Park
Distance: 12.7 km
Duration: 4-5 hours
Difficulty: Moderate
More info

Wedged between the northern cities of Manchester and Sheffield, the Peak District may well be England’s most accessible wilderness. This ridge walk offers spectacular views of Edale Valley, Hope Valley and the edge of Kinder Scout.

2. Kinder Scout and Kinder Downfall

Location: Peak District National Park
Distance: 13.7km
Duration: 4-5 hours
Difficulty: Moderate
More info

Home to several of England’s most popular hiking trails, Kinder Scout features numerous times on this list. First up is this circular hill walk retracing the steps of the famous Kinder Scout mass trespass.

3. Janet’s Foss, Gordale Scar and Malham Cove

Location: Yorkshire…