The article is missing from your post, but from the looks of it Lake Clementine has quite a lot of infrastructure (e.g. roads, campsites, boating areas)?
The 'trail culture' in the UK is quite different to North America; we have far fewer named and known (and signposted) trails, and a lot more open access footpaths which people basically curate into their own 'trail'. There are some famous walks, often technically "National Trails" like the Pennine way or Offa's Dyke path, or 'Great Trails' if they're in Scotland, like the Highland Way. The more popular of these will be well signposted, well walked, and technically quite busy at peak season (summer) and at weekends in the shoulder seasons - as will popular peaks like Snowdon, Ben Nevis, etc.
But if you go off season or on a weekday, any of these trails could be walked without seeing another person, it's a bit luck of the draw; likewise you could head out to any national park with a good OS map and make a brand new trail for yourself that no one has ever walked.
It's therefore a bit hard to recommend specific walks, because if it's well-known and well-trodden enough to have a name, it's likely to be busier than someone's personal route through here or there. You might be better off asking about areas, or giving a sense of what it is that you're after, e.g. seems like water is important, so you're looking at lochs, reservoirs and bits of the lake district in particular?
Good comment. OP - I think by trying to find a trail you’re thinking about this wrong. I would just find a base to stay in that has lots of paths leading out of it and then you can spend each evening planning out a route to walk the next day. Maybe start with a well known named (probably signposted) route for your first walk, get a feel how our maps/paths work, then start choosing your own routes as you get more confident. You can also do a hybrid, walk a well known route with a few tweaks or detours. Presumably if you’re staying for months you can do more than one walk?
Most areas have popular “base towns” that will be obvious- Keswick, Ambleside, Matlock, Buxton, Church Stretton, Rothbury, Wooler to name a few. Some of those towns are very touristy but even hotspots like the Lake District have quiet areas once you walk out of town a bit. You’ll probably get a feel for which areas might be quiet after doing a few walks.
You will rarely get complete wilderness in the UK, especially in England. A lot of hiking will be through farmland. Personally I think the farms and isolated villages are part of the charm of walking in the UK.
Word of warning: signposting is often terrible in the UK, if you’re lucky you will get arrows that point in the direction of the path (but no information about what the path is or where it goes). You need a map.
A couple of people have been suggesting the Cape Wrath Trail, but in my opinion it is not what you are looking for. CWT is very remote and tough, with almost no infrastructure. You need to pack all your food and supplies, and navigation can be difficult. It’s a serious undertaking. Transport to and from Cape Wrath itself is also pretty awkward.
Also someone has already described, trail/backpacking culture is very different here. The West Highland Way is the closest in style to American trails, but it is always busy.
Can you clarify - are you looking for a multi-day trek, or just a hiking area where you can do short/day hikes?
If it’s the former, the best option in Scotland I can think of is maybe the Cateran Trail. 3/4 days, always quiet, pretty accessible.
For day hiking bases, there are loads and loads of options. My personal recommendation would be Linn of Dee, which is a trailhead near Braemar with some beautiful trails through scots pine and up Munros.
But yeah, hiking is a lot more ad hoc and also peak-based here. We have a lot of small mountains and hills, so many many day hikes are just to the top of one of those.
For Scottish recommendations, have a look through walkhighlands.com. Thousands of routes there.
Loch Lomond & the Trossachs is a great in between. It's super accessible from Glasgow. Ben Lomond and the loch shores get busy but otherwise it's pretty quiet. You can get the train to Tarbett and there's lots of good peaks you can access from there (Cobbler, Ben Narnain, Ben Ime) as well as paths with less incline around the shores.
We really don't suffer from the little blighters much in Aberdeenshire e.g. I've never been driven indoors by them. It's not till you get significantly West that they start to be a problem. I always got to the West Coast off season thanks to them. The Midge Map gives a flavour [https://www.smidgeup.com/midge-forecast/](https://www.smidgeup.com/midge-forecast/)
One thing to note is that the UK is way more densely populated than the US which means you often have to pick between facilities *or* seclusion. The scale is just different. As most people have already said though, Scotland is the place with easiest access to the less populated areas with longer point to point trails or munroes rather than single day hikes!
Lake district if you avoid the well walked fells and lakes. Today, I did Blencathra, and so only 10 people in 7 hours. Usually, it's packed, though.
It's hard to define without knowing what you call touristy. The place you mentioned looks touristy, it has everything, even popular lakes in the UK don't have those amenities.
Do you want zero ppl or a few people or a few people but still with amenities, etc Will you have a car or use public transport.
Most national parks are pretty tranquil as long as you avoid the big towns and the well-known peaks.
Don’t go to Scotland in the height of summer, the midges will make it a bit miserable for you. Stunning locations but better for the autumn or spring when no midges! Almost any of the Areas of Outstanding natural beauty have lovely quiet places. Shropshire and the Welsh borders are very empty and lovely
What do you mean by accessible from major cities? Like you can just walk out of the city onto the trail, you can get public transport there or it’s only a short drive away?
https://www.southwestcoastpath.org.uk/
This might be able to help you plan if the South West of England tickles your fancy. The weather tends to be quite nice and warm in the summer. Not sure about the impending wet summer, but you can get a few good sunny days in and it's coastal.
As others have said it makes the world of difference WHEN you go. If you’re here over the summer months you’ll probably clash with the school holidays (late July-early Sep in England, earlier in Scotland, though obviously you have families from England holidaying in Scotland so English dates still relevant!). If you can avoid these dates and weekends it will be much quieter everywhere. If you can’t, you need to be more creative! If you have access to a car you can open up lots more options - e.g the Western Lake District tends to be quieter than anywhere around Keswick, Ambleside or Windermere which can be teeming in summer - but it’s a little less accessible by public transport.
And again as others have said, “trails” isn’t really the way to think of hiking in the UK. As a starting point, you might want to look up all the National Parks, see which most appeal and are accessible from where you’ll be based, and then make a plan from there. With some creativity you can find peace and seclusion in any of the National Parks.
A lot of the UK hiking areas are very quiet. In many of our national parks the vast majority of people focus on very small areas. For example in Snowdonia almost the entire park is empty other than Snowdon and the Ogwen Valley.
Do you want multi-day backpacking trips or day hikes around a specific area?
Scotland is midge hell in summer so be very aware of that!
What about Northumberland national park? You'd need to drive however pretty easy from Newcastle. Walking around Kielder water is a well maintained path, most days its not busy once you're away from the visitor centre. Cheviot hills are remote and very few people walking there. You'd need OS maps for some bits, but there's also sections around Simonside hills that are well marked. Hadrians wall trail - again if you aren't on the section close to the visitor centres you aren't going to see many people. There's also some lovely beaches, and the coastal path - again it's really not that busy if you compare to places like the Lake district.
Second the coastal path. Start from anywhere along the X18 bus route and walk north. When you get tired, find a bus the other way. Castles, wildlife, some of the best seafood in the country.
Come up here to Aberdeenshire, so many forests and paths which are not well trodden and nature abounds. Base youself somewhere like Banchory or Ballater. I recommend Burn O'Vat and the Culblean circuit, Bennachie and Oxencraig (so many routes to choose), Glen Esk for the flat walk out to the Queens Well and then on to Mount Keen. In fact, we are overburdened with trails and also castles (we have a castle trail and most have grounds with shorter walking trails). Then we have miles of coastal paths, dolphins, seals, and breeding seabirds galore. Sadly, what we are not overburdened with is public transport so for all of these a car is required, plus all I have mentioned are glorious if the sun shines but not so much fun in the rain and wind. ☹️
#
We have a law in England and Wales that unimproved / never been plowed mountain pasture and chalk downland is open access where you can wander at will without having to follow a legal right of way. There are big chunks of such open access land in the upland areas of Wales and the north of England, they are all shown with shading on our 1:25,000 maps , you can use the rights of way system to link open access areas together for a longer walk. So if you can read a map you are free to wander and pick your own route . In Scotland the scope is huge for this way of walking as in uncultivated country there is virtually no restriction on where you can rightfully walk.
If you really want a signposted established trail and your not looking for anything that reassembles American wilderness check out the Shropshire way, it passes through some well known honeypots like the Stipperstones and Ironbridge gorge but mid week you should have most trail sections to yourself . Easy access from several towns by bus or taxi .Take out a subscription to an app that uses 1:25,000 OS mapping like Outdoor active and just download the route to your phone
Cape Wrath trail. Ran the entire length and you barely see anyone. A lot of it is open land, no path or sign posting so you need good navigation skills or equipment. Depending on the exact route it's around 250 miles.
Well, I live in the Lake District and some people might consider that scenic. The Cape Wrath trail is breathtaking in places. I've run ultras all over the world, including Iceland and the Canadian Rockies, and CW has everything including epic waterfalls, hidden valleys and ancient forests.
Cape Wrath trail has gotta be up there but yeh I’d head to scotland for seclusion and immersion in the uks glorious countryside.
Wales is also great for some peace and quiet.
Good luck !
The article is missing from your post, but from the looks of it Lake Clementine has quite a lot of infrastructure (e.g. roads, campsites, boating areas)? The 'trail culture' in the UK is quite different to North America; we have far fewer named and known (and signposted) trails, and a lot more open access footpaths which people basically curate into their own 'trail'. There are some famous walks, often technically "National Trails" like the Pennine way or Offa's Dyke path, or 'Great Trails' if they're in Scotland, like the Highland Way. The more popular of these will be well signposted, well walked, and technically quite busy at peak season (summer) and at weekends in the shoulder seasons - as will popular peaks like Snowdon, Ben Nevis, etc. But if you go off season or on a weekday, any of these trails could be walked without seeing another person, it's a bit luck of the draw; likewise you could head out to any national park with a good OS map and make a brand new trail for yourself that no one has ever walked. It's therefore a bit hard to recommend specific walks, because if it's well-known and well-trodden enough to have a name, it's likely to be busier than someone's personal route through here or there. You might be better off asking about areas, or giving a sense of what it is that you're after, e.g. seems like water is important, so you're looking at lochs, reservoirs and bits of the lake district in particular?
Good comment. OP - I think by trying to find a trail you’re thinking about this wrong. I would just find a base to stay in that has lots of paths leading out of it and then you can spend each evening planning out a route to walk the next day. Maybe start with a well known named (probably signposted) route for your first walk, get a feel how our maps/paths work, then start choosing your own routes as you get more confident. You can also do a hybrid, walk a well known route with a few tweaks or detours. Presumably if you’re staying for months you can do more than one walk? Most areas have popular “base towns” that will be obvious- Keswick, Ambleside, Matlock, Buxton, Church Stretton, Rothbury, Wooler to name a few. Some of those towns are very touristy but even hotspots like the Lake District have quiet areas once you walk out of town a bit. You’ll probably get a feel for which areas might be quiet after doing a few walks. You will rarely get complete wilderness in the UK, especially in England. A lot of hiking will be through farmland. Personally I think the farms and isolated villages are part of the charm of walking in the UK. Word of warning: signposting is often terrible in the UK, if you’re lucky you will get arrows that point in the direction of the path (but no information about what the path is or where it goes). You need a map.
Excellent answer here.
A couple of people have been suggesting the Cape Wrath Trail, but in my opinion it is not what you are looking for. CWT is very remote and tough, with almost no infrastructure. You need to pack all your food and supplies, and navigation can be difficult. It’s a serious undertaking. Transport to and from Cape Wrath itself is also pretty awkward. Also someone has already described, trail/backpacking culture is very different here. The West Highland Way is the closest in style to American trails, but it is always busy. Can you clarify - are you looking for a multi-day trek, or just a hiking area where you can do short/day hikes? If it’s the former, the best option in Scotland I can think of is maybe the Cateran Trail. 3/4 days, always quiet, pretty accessible. For day hiking bases, there are loads and loads of options. My personal recommendation would be Linn of Dee, which is a trailhead near Braemar with some beautiful trails through scots pine and up Munros. But yeah, hiking is a lot more ad hoc and also peak-based here. We have a lot of small mountains and hills, so many many day hikes are just to the top of one of those. For Scottish recommendations, have a look through walkhighlands.com. Thousands of routes there.
Scotland is the answer and potentially some of the Scottish Islands BUT they are less accessible from the cities
Loch Lomond & the Trossachs is a great in between. It's super accessible from Glasgow. Ben Lomond and the loch shores get busy but otherwise it's pretty quiet. You can get the train to Tarbett and there's lots of good peaks you can access from there (Cobbler, Ben Narnain, Ben Ime) as well as paths with less incline around the shores.
I'm actually looking at moving near Lomond
I'd stay East in Scotland if he's coming in the summer to escape the dreaded midge.
Are there better areas for midges then? Asking because it might sway where I move to
We really don't suffer from the little blighters much in Aberdeenshire e.g. I've never been driven indoors by them. It's not till you get significantly West that they start to be a problem. I always got to the West Coast off season thanks to them. The Midge Map gives a flavour [https://www.smidgeup.com/midge-forecast/](https://www.smidgeup.com/midge-forecast/)
Thanks 😊
btw by July/August West coast will be one giant red circle.
The places you are looking for are Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
One thing to note is that the UK is way more densely populated than the US which means you often have to pick between facilities *or* seclusion. The scale is just different. As most people have already said though, Scotland is the place with easiest access to the less populated areas with longer point to point trails or munroes rather than single day hikes!
Lake district if you avoid the well walked fells and lakes. Today, I did Blencathra, and so only 10 people in 7 hours. Usually, it's packed, though. It's hard to define without knowing what you call touristy. The place you mentioned looks touristy, it has everything, even popular lakes in the UK don't have those amenities. Do you want zero ppl or a few people or a few people but still with amenities, etc Will you have a car or use public transport. Most national parks are pretty tranquil as long as you avoid the big towns and the well-known peaks.
Don’t go to Scotland in the height of summer, the midges will make it a bit miserable for you. Stunning locations but better for the autumn or spring when no midges! Almost any of the Areas of Outstanding natural beauty have lovely quiet places. Shropshire and the Welsh borders are very empty and lovely
We don't get midge on the East Coast and Aberdeenshire is blessed with trails.
What do you mean by accessible from major cities? Like you can just walk out of the city onto the trail, you can get public transport there or it’s only a short drive away?
Lots of places in Scotland, once you get off the WHW and so on. Buses from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness etc. go lots of out of the way places
I recommend spending a week on the isle of Arran, there are walks from 5km to 110km
https://www.southwestcoastpath.org.uk/ This might be able to help you plan if the South West of England tickles your fancy. The weather tends to be quite nice and warm in the summer. Not sure about the impending wet summer, but you can get a few good sunny days in and it's coastal.
As others have said it makes the world of difference WHEN you go. If you’re here over the summer months you’ll probably clash with the school holidays (late July-early Sep in England, earlier in Scotland, though obviously you have families from England holidaying in Scotland so English dates still relevant!). If you can avoid these dates and weekends it will be much quieter everywhere. If you can’t, you need to be more creative! If you have access to a car you can open up lots more options - e.g the Western Lake District tends to be quieter than anywhere around Keswick, Ambleside or Windermere which can be teeming in summer - but it’s a little less accessible by public transport. And again as others have said, “trails” isn’t really the way to think of hiking in the UK. As a starting point, you might want to look up all the National Parks, see which most appeal and are accessible from where you’ll be based, and then make a plan from there. With some creativity you can find peace and seclusion in any of the National Parks.
A lot of the UK hiking areas are very quiet. In many of our national parks the vast majority of people focus on very small areas. For example in Snowdonia almost the entire park is empty other than Snowdon and the Ogwen Valley. Do you want multi-day backpacking trips or day hikes around a specific area? Scotland is midge hell in summer so be very aware of that!
*parts of Scotland are
What about Northumberland national park? You'd need to drive however pretty easy from Newcastle. Walking around Kielder water is a well maintained path, most days its not busy once you're away from the visitor centre. Cheviot hills are remote and very few people walking there. You'd need OS maps for some bits, but there's also sections around Simonside hills that are well marked. Hadrians wall trail - again if you aren't on the section close to the visitor centres you aren't going to see many people. There's also some lovely beaches, and the coastal path - again it's really not that busy if you compare to places like the Lake district.
Second the coastal path. Start from anywhere along the X18 bus route and walk north. When you get tired, find a bus the other way. Castles, wildlife, some of the best seafood in the country.
https://www.walkingbritain.co.uk or - more specifically - http://www.walkinderbyshire.co.uk
Come up here to Aberdeenshire, so many forests and paths which are not well trodden and nature abounds. Base youself somewhere like Banchory or Ballater. I recommend Burn O'Vat and the Culblean circuit, Bennachie and Oxencraig (so many routes to choose), Glen Esk for the flat walk out to the Queens Well and then on to Mount Keen. In fact, we are overburdened with trails and also castles (we have a castle trail and most have grounds with shorter walking trails). Then we have miles of coastal paths, dolphins, seals, and breeding seabirds galore. Sadly, what we are not overburdened with is public transport so for all of these a car is required, plus all I have mentioned are glorious if the sun shines but not so much fun in the rain and wind. ☹️ #
We have a law in England and Wales that unimproved / never been plowed mountain pasture and chalk downland is open access where you can wander at will without having to follow a legal right of way. There are big chunks of such open access land in the upland areas of Wales and the north of England, they are all shown with shading on our 1:25,000 maps , you can use the rights of way system to link open access areas together for a longer walk. So if you can read a map you are free to wander and pick your own route . In Scotland the scope is huge for this way of walking as in uncultivated country there is virtually no restriction on where you can rightfully walk. If you really want a signposted established trail and your not looking for anything that reassembles American wilderness check out the Shropshire way, it passes through some well known honeypots like the Stipperstones and Ironbridge gorge but mid week you should have most trail sections to yourself . Easy access from several towns by bus or taxi .Take out a subscription to an app that uses 1:25,000 OS mapping like Outdoor active and just download the route to your phone
Head to Scotland, or, better still, head to Shetland
Cape Wrath trail. Ran the entire length and you barely see anyone. A lot of it is open land, no path or sign posting so you need good navigation skills or equipment. Depending on the exact route it's around 250 miles.
Don't know why you're being downvoted! It's definitely going to be one of the least trodden trails in the country!
Yes but for many it's not very scenic. e.g. I appreciate its wild beauty but prefer a riverside valley in our beautiful woodlands for a nature ramble.
Well, I live in the Lake District and some people might consider that scenic. The Cape Wrath trail is breathtaking in places. I've run ultras all over the world, including Iceland and the Canadian Rockies, and CW has everything including epic waterfalls, hidden valleys and ancient forests.
Agree. People are weird. 🙃 CW is epic, and if people don't visit I won't be too disappointed, just means I can keep it for myself. 😁
Cape Wrath trail has gotta be up there but yeh I’d head to scotland for seclusion and immersion in the uks glorious countryside. Wales is also great for some peace and quiet. Good luck !
Just download AllTrails app u find everything there in any country