• Thrilled to announce the 2nd edition of the award-winning River Tyne Trail guidebook is now available to buy here – Visit our shop by clicking here.

New, enlarged official guide from the source to sea, and sea to source. The trail traces the length of one of Britain’s greatest rivers, the Tyne The 130 mile walk covers both sources, the North and South Tynes, which are marked by giant stone monuments. Every sale helps the charity transport cancer patients on their journey to recovery

• We are pleased to announce that the Daft as a Brush Cancer Patient Care walk guidebook – ‘River Tyne Trail: Sources to Sea’ achieved Silver runner-up status in The Great Outdoors magazine’s 2018 “Book of the Year” competition and In 2019 the walk received national recognition when it was included on Ordnance Survey mapping.

• New hard copies of OS maps are now only published when justified by demand. Consequently the River Tyne Trail so far has only been marked on the May 2019 edition of OS Explorer 43 Hadrian’s Wall map which covers a large section of the route. However, the complete route of the River Tyne Trail is currently available on the digital version of OS mapping (see: ordnancesurvey.co.uk)

• The walk now features on the database of the Long Distance Walkers Association
Click here to view on the LDW website.

• The three Maley boys, Benjamin, eleven, and nine-year-old twins, Jonathan and Matthew, with their parents Sean and Carla, reach the Daft as a Brush marker stone at the end of their 95 mile walk along the River Tyne from Deadwater to Tynemouth.

To date they appear to have been the youngest people to have completed the trail. The boys decided to undertake this challenge after seeing Matt Baker on BBC TV’s Children in Need programme escorting a young girl, with the devastating Niemann-Pick condition, on his long rickshaw ride.

The Trail, with its clearly defined stages of between seven and fifteen miles, lent itself perfectly to their needs. However, each stage had to fit in with other family commitments especially as the boys and their parents are competitive runners and members of North Shields Polytechnic Athletics Club!

Consequently the walk was spread over several months, starting in snow in January and ending in sunshine in May.

They were joined by friends at various stages and accompanied by co-guidebook writer, Peter Donaghy along the way. Peter said, “What a pleasure to witness the enthusiasm and interest the boys showed as they eagerly undertook this challenge- it took me all my time to keep up with them!”.

They were joined by some 50 friends and supporters as they reached the Daft as a Brush stone at Tynemouth, having satisfactorily achieved their aim and raised some £4,000 for charity.

The Trail now has its own distinctive waymarks. Keep an eye out for these helpful arrows to navigate the walk. The walk is now available on OS Mapping.

Have you walked the trail? We would love to hear your feedback, please get in touch with the author, Peter Donaghy or Daft as a Brush by emailing us your feedback and comments. Thank you!

Purchase the River Tyne Trail book by clicking here.