Introduction
Bringing people together
To support us in our mission to bring people together over a love of landscapes, we’re working in partnership with some great outdoor organisations.
Here at YHA, we just couldn’t do it without our partners! These organisations are helped us to deliver this year’s Festival of Walking.
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Festival partners
British Mountaineering Council
The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) is the representative body for hill walkers, climbers and mountaineers, protecting their freedoms and promoting their interests.
The BMC is delighted to be providing: technical walking advice to YHA, qualified volunteers to lead the festival’s guided social walks, and information to keep everybody safe when out and about walking.
Cotswold Outdoor
Cotswold Outdoor are pleased to be supporting YHA's Festival of Walking. For almost 50 years, Cotswold Outdoor have been helping people to discover the great outdoors by offering quality clothing, equipment and accessories from the very best outdoor brands.
When it comes to the outdoors, their friendly, passionate and knowledgeable in-store experts have helped cement their reputation as unrivalled providers of advice that’s born from experience. Book an in-store appointment with services including free expert boot and rucksack fitting to ensure you find the right fit.
Check out some of their expert guides to help you prepare for your walk:
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey are passionate about helping more people get outside more often, and offer a range of products and services to help make the outdoors more enjoyable, accessible and safe.
Their award-winning digital mapping app, OS Maps, offers detailed mapping on any device, thousands of ready-made routes, plus stunning 3D views and augmented reality. Explore further across Great Britain and internationally in Australia, New Zealand and America, with more countries coming soon.
For more than 230 years, Ordnance Survey has helped people discover the outdoors. Their iconic paper maps are supported by an expanding collection of OS products, books and outdoor accessories. All available from the OS Shop, alongside an extensive range of adventure gear from top outdoor brands.
OS inspires people to find new places and create lasting memories, and in doing so, helps keep the nation active, happy and healthy.
Pilgrim Trust
The Pilgrim Trust is providing funding to enable underserved communities to gain access to nature and heritage through the Festival of Walking. An independent charitable trust, founded in 1930, it has a wide remit to support the urgent and future needs of the UK. From the outset, the focus has been on social change and preservation and conservation.
Its aims are to improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and preserve the best of our past for the public to enjoy. YHA is delighted to be working with the Pilgrim Trust for a second year in 2024.
The Ramblers
The Ramblers open the way for everyone to enjoy the simple pleasures of walking. And they step up to protect the places we all love to wander.
They are the only charity dedicated to removing barriers so everyone can enjoy walking in green spaces, and to improving Britain’s most popular and least-known walking places. The Ramblers are committed to campaigning to keep our countryside open to all and to fighting for the things that matter most to walkers. They lead the way, and the walks, for a vibrant community united by the joys of walking, helping everyone get more out of their walks.
Sport England
Sport England is a public body and invests up to £300 million National Lottery and government money each year in projects and programmes that help people get active and play sport. It wants everyone in England – regardless of age, background or level of ability – to feel able to engage in sport and physical activity. That’s why a lot of its work is specifically focused on helping people who do no, or very little, physical activity and groups who are typically less active such as women, disabled people and people on lower incomes.
In 2022, Sport England provided seed funding to help establish the Festival of Walking and continues to provide funding which is actively supporting people from different backgrounds to get involved.