World Trails Day
Celebrating our World Trails—connecting us to nature, heritage, and ourselves.
Together with our family of National Trails across England and Wales, along with the trails we work with internationally, we’re inviting you to celebrate World Trails Day in June. World Trails Day is an annual celebration, taking place on the first Saturday in June, and is a day to pay tribute to trails and express our gratitude to the countless people entrusted with looking after them.
The World Trails Network
The World Trails Network (WTN) strives to connect the diverse trails of the world to promote the creation, enhancement, and protection of outstanding trail experiences. The World Trails Network brings trail associations, trail advocates, walkers, hikers and people passionate about the outdoors together from around the world to foster global collaboration and networking for the betterment of the world’s trails.
Every two years, trail managers and enthusiasts from around the world gather for the World Trails Conference hosted by the WTN—an opportunity to share knowledge, forge meaningful networks, and shape the future of trail experiences around the world. The WTN also runs a Friendship Trail programme, joining sections of different trails around the world.
In 2024, Director, Julian Gray, and National Trail Officer, Lorna Sherriff, attended the World Trails Conference in Ottawa, Canada supported by the Trans Canada Trails Network, and attended the opening of a new International Friendship Trail between the South West Coast Path and The Bruce Trail—Canada's oldest and longest marked footpath, connecting the Niagara Escarpment up to Tobemory on Lake Huron.
Credit: Albert Wu, TMI Trail
A section of the SWCP Friendship Trail route is also within the European Ramblers E9 Route. The E9 is the longest coastal trail in the world, spanning almost 10,000kms from Tarifa in Spain up to Narva-Jõesuu in Estonia. The UK section of the trail runs from Plymouth (connected by the Roscoff Ferry) through to Dover (linking back to Calais). The first section of this route follows the SWCP through to Poole and then follows the King Charles III England Coast Path to the South Downs Way and finally the Saxon Shore Way.
The South West Coast Path is also part of the International Appalachian Trail. In North America the IAT Connects elements of the Appalachian Mountains, crossing rivers, threading open spruce and fir forests, joining the people and cultures of Maine, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. Since 2009, this has expanded to Greenland and Iceland and across the arc of the North Atlantic to Europe and North Africa.
