Wherever you find yourself in the UK – among the Munros of Scotland, the fens of East Anglia, the rolling moors of the west-country or the suburban sprawl of of a big city, there‘s a county top on your doorstep waiting to be discovered.

Ranging from 80m Boring Field in Huntingdonshire to 1344m Ben Nevis in Inverness-shire, the 91 tops of the historic counties of the UK are a sundry collection of hills and mountains spanning the length and breadth of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Some rank among the finest summits in the UK: Ben Lomond, Helvellyn, Pen y Fan, The Cheviot, Scafell Pike, Slieve Donard and Worcestershire Beacon. Others are less known, appearing in strange and wonderful places: A military firing zone in Yorkshire, the tundra plateau of the Cairngorms and a back garden in south-east London. Every county top has its own story, whether it is the mystery of the Grey Man of Macdui on Ben Macdui, the Mass Trespass of 1932 on Kinder Scout or the devastating wartime death toll on Shropshire’s Brown Clee Hill.

Author Jonny Muir was the first person to visit them all in one 5000-mile cycling and walking adventure, over a three-month period, and he shares his preferred routes, gradings and lots of incidental facts and figures for each one here.

Heading to the highest point of any European country is an experience not to be missed. Europe offers the hiker a wealth of adventure and a huge variety of dazzling scenery and each of our 50 countries celebrates its national high point in a different way. Now this unique guide brings together clear and detailed route descriptions of how to reach the summits of countries from Liechtenstein to Latvia, across the continent.

Whether you are attempting to climb a selection of individual high points or collect the set, you will find these routes lead you to some of the most striking landscapes and exciting terrain that Europe has to offer, with all the information you need about each country to get there – along with interesting but incidental information that you don’t!

Stretching from the frozen tundra of the Arctic Circle to the arid plains of the Sierra Nevada, this book contains something for everyone – from afternoon strolls in Malta and Moldova to three-day mountaineering ascents on classic Alpine routes such as Mont Blanc and Dufourspitze.

Don’t cross the Channel without it!

 

All the rich scenic diversity for which the Alps are renowned is celebrated here, while the 20 treks described include well-known classics as well as newly-created multi-day routes. The eight talented writers and photographers brought together to produce this book are among the most experienced of Alpine trekkers. Between them they have explored every corner of Europe’s premier mountain range, written dozens of guides and, in some cases, led trekking holidays there in order to share their enthusiasm for the Alps with other walkers. And that is the prime motivation for Trekking in the Alps – an inspiration and a celebration of the very best of these mountains.

Best-known treks

Tour of Mont Blanc; Tour of the Matterhorn; Tour of Monte Rosa; Walker’s Haute Route; Tour of the Jungfrau Region; Tour of the Vanoise; Dolomites AV 1 & 2

Longer trans-Alpine treks

GR5 (Lake Geneva to Nice); Eastern Alps E5; Italian Alps GTA; Traverse of the Slovenian Alps

For the Alpine adventurer

Alpine Pass Route; Tour of the Oisans; Tour of the Queyras; Tour of Mont Ruan; Stubai High Route; Zillertal High Route; Gran Paradiso AV2; Rätikon Höhenweg