We both enjoy walking, especially a good day-long hike. We’re not stay overnight in the wilds, using a tent, type’s but we’re quite happy taking on a 10-12 mile trek in the hills or countryside.  

Over the past few years, we’ve walked a lot, picking off hikes using the Ordnance Survey Pathfinder Guidebooks for wherever we visit.  

The books group circular walks, in a given area, in distances and I’ve found them really useful. The books have well researched routes, they’re easy to follow and cover pretty much anywhere you might want to go walking in the UK. The only drawback is they can become dated (they’ve been going a long time) so buying second hand doesn’t always work and they can soon go out of date. 

I decided in 2022 to buy a walking app to back up the books, to help us get back on track if we took a wrong turn or were diverted from the route in the book. Sadly, I do like a few stats so I was also looking for something to record our walks. I trialled the OS walking app, which came well recommended. I thought it was ok so I took up a year’s subscription. It gets great reviews but, long term, I didn’t get on with it that well. I didn’t renew my subscription in 2023 and just went back to relying on the OS guidebook’s. 

That brings us to July, this year, when we booked a week long, last minute, Air BnB cottage in Pontnedfechan, South Wales, UK. It was a great base for walks in the Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog) as well as being the start of one our favourite hikes around waterfall country. I’ll write a seperate blog on that holiday.

I had several walks planned, most in my OS Pathfinder Guide but the book was old and out of date. I wanted to walk the Brecon’s Horseshoe (three peaks – Corn Du, Pen Y Fan and Cribyn in a horseshoe shaped walk) but I knew there was at least one new car park we could use, rather than drive, out of our way, to the car park shown in the book. A reservoir described in the book as a landmark is also no longer there having been drained and out of use for several years.

As we were going to deviate from the book, to use the car park closer to us, I decided to invest in the OutdoorActive App. Its a route planner/follower/recorder. What I particularly liked was being able to download routes, recorded by others, and then follow those routes for your own walk. Some of the uploaded routes include photos to help guide you to certain landmarks etc.

We used the app on four walks that week in conjunction with the OS Pathfinder book. I typed the title of the walk we wanted to follow, from the book, into the App and it found a guided walk for us to download every time.

When following routes, with the app, it can be used a bit like a sat nav with someone telling you when you wander off the route you’re supposed to be following. That might irritate some people but we found it useful and you can always turn it off.

For our hiking needs I thought the app was really good and if your looking for something similar, it’s well worth trialling. I paid for a subscription to continue using the app and we have used it, successfully, on several other walks since returning from Wales.

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.