Routes Worn Into the Hills

Long before railways, lorries and tarmac, cattle walked to market. Drovers moved black cattle out of the Welsh uplands, the Scottish glens and the northern fells, driving them south and east to fairs and fattening pastures, and ultimately to the great urban markets. It was slow work — perhaps ten to twelve miles a day, weeks on the road, with the beasts grazing the verges as they went. The lines they chose were not random. They picked firm ground, gentle gradients, reliable water and places to lie up when the weather closed in. Those same qualities make them excellent walking routes today.

Reading the Ground Beneath Your Feet

A drovers' road is rarely signposted as such. It reveals itself in the shape of the land. The classic clue is the holloway: a track worn into the hillside by centuries of hooves and feet until it sits several feet below the surrounding field, with banks of moss, fern and hawthorn on either side. Look for several such channels running roughly parallel — drovers spread their herds across a wide front rather than walking them nose to tail, and the traffic carved multiple lines.

Other signs to watch for:

• Wide verges beside a lane, often rich in wildflowers, a reminder that the roadside was grazing ground as well as a route.
• Parallel sunken grooves on open moor, sometimes a metre deep, running straight towards a gap or a ford.
• Revetted banks and stone pitching on steep sections, where the surface was built up to stop it washing away.
• Place names containing "drove", "tryst", "gate", "bank", "ford" or "smithy" — the last a reminder that shoes, both human and bovine, needed replacing.

Boundary Stones, Cairns and Trysts

Because the routes crossed open country with few landmarks, drovers relied on markers: standing stones, cairns, boundary stones and crosses. Many survive, weathered and lichen-covered, sometimes with initials or a date cut into the face — often marking the meeting of two parishes or estates. A line of such stones across a moor is as good an indication of the old route as any path on the ground.

Where several routes converged, you find the trysts — the great seasonal gatherings where beasts were bought, sold and re-shod before the next stage. Crieff and Falkirk in Scotland, and a string of market towns along the Welsh border, grew rich on that trade. Nearby you will often find a drovers' inn, built with unusually wide doorways and a yard at the back, and sometimes a bank where money could be deposited — the drover's equivalent of a traveller's cheque.

Following a Route Today

Start with a large-scale map — 1:25,000 if you can get it — and look for the tell-tale combination of a dashed path, a boundary line and a run of contour-friendly ground. Drovers avoided bogs and steep scree, so a route that maintains height without climbing unnecessarily is usually the right one.

• Walk it in sections. A full drove might be sixty or eighty miles; treat it as a series of day walks linked by bus or train.
• Take the high line where the old track crosses open moor, but drop to the valley in bad weather — the lower lanes were part of the same network.
• Carry a paper map and compass. Paths fade, and gateposts on open access land are not always where you expect them.
• Check for stiles and gates in advance on upland routes; some are awkward, and a few are missing.

What You Might See Along the Way

The best drovers' roads cross rough grazing and moorland edge, which means wildlife. Curlew and lapwing nest on damp pasture in spring; skylarks sing above almost any open ground; ring ouzel favour the stony slopes; and wheatears flit ahead of you along the walls. On the verges, look for knapweed, ox-eye daisy, tormentil and harebells, and in late summer, bilberry and heather. Adders bask on south-facing banks, so watch where you put your hands when scrambling over stone.

Walking Them Well

These are working landscapes. Cattle and sheep graze them, so keep dogs close and on a lead near livestock, especially between March and July. Leave gates as you find them, take litter home, and avoid widening eroded sections by walking on the firm edge where possible. Many drovers' roads run across open access land, but not all — check the map for the symbol and respect any seasonal restrictions. Follow those simple habits and the old routes will keep carrying walkers, as they carried cattle, for a good while yet.