Walking rights, and three classic routes

In England and Wales, public footpaths and bridleways are rights of way. You may walk them even when they cross a farm. Open access land — mountain, moor, heath, down — lets you roam off-path, with local exceptions and closures in nesting or shooting seasons. Ordnance Survey maps, and the OS app, are the reference. A stile is not a suggestion to turn back.

Scotland’s Land Reform Act gives a broader right of responsible access to most land and inland water. The Scottish Outdoor Access Code is the manners that keep the right alive: leave gates as you found them, keep a dog under control around livestock, skip the garden and the growing crop. Northern Ireland has its own path network and fewer automatic rights across farmland. Stick to waymarked paths there unless you know otherwise.

The Coffin Road, or a shorter cousin above Buttermere in the Lake District: classic fell walking, a pub at the end, weather that will test the jacket you thought was enough. Turn around if the cloud drops and you cannot read the path.

A stage of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path rather than the whole national trail. Ten miles of cliff between two bus-served villages will do. And the Great Glen or a piece of the West Highland Way if you want Scotland at walking speed: the Way is waymarked, popular, and bookable inn to inn. You do not have to thru-hike anything to have walked the country.