Ramblers in the UK promotes walking in the countryside, protects rights of way, campaigns for access to open country and defends the beauty of the countryside. This it has been doing over the past 70 years. It is a charity and receives no government funding, which means that members subscriptions are essential if this work is to continue. The walks arranged by the various rambling groups are done on a purely voluntary basis.

Besides the help a subscription to Ramblers brings, other reasons for joining Ramblers are:

• to take part in planned walks in the countryside, discover new places and share the enjoyment of the experience with others,
• to have the opportunity to make new friends while on the walks,
• to get plenty of exercise in pleasant surroundings and so improve one's fitness.

For contact details click Ramblers.

The Penrith Group is in the Lake District Area of Ramblers, (refence LD5), and its membership is taken from a catchment area stretching from Ullswater through the Eden Valley to the Pennines and includes Alston, Appleby, Brough, Dufton, Kirkby Stephen, Kirkoswald, Penrith, Shap and Tebay. It does not include Armathwaite or Ivegill, which are in the Carlisle catchment area.
The post codes of the catchment area for the Penrith Group start with CA9, CA10, CA11, CA16 and CA17.
(If you live outside the catchment area and wish to belong to the Penrith Group, you need to indicate this, when you join Ramblers.)
The walks put on by the group range well beyond the catchment area, stretching throughout Cumbria and into Durham, Northumberland, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Southern Scotland. Weekend trips to Central Scotland have been arranged in the past.To Top

The Penrith Group is an active group in the Lake District area of Ramblers, leading over 6 walks per week in the summer months and about 5 walks per week during the rest of the year. Despite being centred on a fairly small town, the group has about 70% more members and carries out more walks than the Carlisle group, which is centred on Carlisle city with a much larger population some 17 miles to the north.
The group holds most walks on Wednesdays, when 4 and sometimes 5 walks are held, with one walk on a Saturday. In the summer, walks are held on a Thursday evening and some special 'theme' walks are held on a Sunday. Active walkers in the group tend to associate with a particular walking party, based on friendship groupings and walking ability, though some members do swop between walking parties.
Besides leading walks, the group is involved with investigating routes for new and existing paths and reporting obstructions to paths in the area. It also holds social events, such as lunches/dinners and walking trips in other areas of the country .
As you might expect there are many members who work with little publicity behind the scenes, helping with social events, doing the administration, making policy decisions and helping to publicise the group, e.g. writing articles in the local press and even running this website.

Various facilities on this website need Javascript enabled. Go to Enabling Javascript for step-by-step guides on how to enable Javascript on the latest browsers. Information on security is also included.

To get details of the walks put on by the Penrith Group go to:

• Walks' Programme. Besides the basic list of walks, dates and their leaders, a mapping facility shows the approximate location of the region of any walk and provides an indication of the OS map or maps, which is/are needed to navigate the walk. Provision to print out one or more walks' programmes, without images, buttons and page headings is also available. All these extra facilities require Javascript to be enabled.
  The walks' programme is organised by and for Ramblers members but new members are always welcome. (Note: prospective members are free to sample two or three walks before deciding if they would like to join.)

******* Before partaking on a particular walk listed in the programme, new or potential members are advised to read the information on:

• Guide lines to walks, which has a copy of the Countryside code, guidance for new walk leaders, advice on how to deal with accidents, how to cope in thunder storms, obstructions to paths, bringing a dog on a walk and on sensible rambling.
• Contacting Penrith Group, which gives contact details of walk leaders, walk co-ordinators and the various officials of the Penrith Group. There is also information on joining Ramblers and where to meet before a walk.
• Walking Equipment, which gives suggestions on what to wear and carry on a fell walk.
• If you need advice on navigation go to Navigation, which gives information on the Ordnance Survey map system and use of compass and GPS.
• Advice on avoiding aches and diseases and coping with medical problems, which might be encountered on a walk go to Medical advice
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Because some walks are changed or a walk's route is unknown when the walks' programme is printed, it is intended to update the walks' programme on the website and add notices informing ramblers of the changes, as information becomes available. To see if you need to update your printed copy of the walks' programme, you should check the llist of changes, listed briefly in a scrolling table on the top right of the Home page. If you need more information go to

• Updates, Notices + Ads, to find out what has changed. Even more detail will be on the Walks' programme page.

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Visitors to the site may like to get a flavour of the walks on offer by viewing photographs, taken on walks by members of the Penrith Ramblers. If so, go to

• Penrith Ramblers Photos, where you will find several sets of photographs taken over recent years.

Enlargements of thumbnail photos can be viewed singly or in sequence using a slideshow facility, if javascript is enabled. It is intended to add additional sets of photographs at regular intervals. The timing depends on the numbers received from members. In the past, old photos were stored on the ''fotopic.net' website but when this company ceased trading in early 2011, most of these sets of photos were put back on this website later in the year. Not all the sets were recovered but by using stored copies of photos on disc, 'new' sets have been compiled. Instead of one set of photos, there are now over 20! There is even a set of photos with questions to test your knowledge of the fells, tarns, dales etc. of the area.

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• News Letter.

Because the Lake District area site now displays the Penrith Ramblers News Letter in pdf format, it is not shown on this web site, so saving duplication. Instead a link to the area web site is provided. Links are also provided to sites, which supply freeware downloads of pdf readers.

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Penrith is located near some of the most beautiful areas of England, where they hold their walks.. More information on these areas can be found on ,

• The Eden Valley.
• The Howgills.
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• The Lake District.
• The Pennines.
and
• The Yorkshire Dales.

On the pages are thumbnail photos. Clicking on these will cause them to enlarge gradually if Javascript is enabled.

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• The Contents button on the Home page does not just allow the visitor to see a list of what is on this site but by clicking on any named topic, the visitor can go to that topic directly, saving time and effort by avoiding having to navigate there themselves.

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• The 'Your Feedback' button on the Home page allows visitors to the site to provide information to the webmaster about which pages and which facilities they use. Visitors can also make comments, reporting errors and possible improvements to the site for the webmaster to consider.

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• Web site Management gives information on how the website has developed since the site was first started.