We’ve mentioned before the general benefits of walking, notably in this blog article where, amongst other things, we pointed out that regular walking:
- reduces stress
- produces endorphins which improve your mood
- helps maintain a healthy weight by burning calories.
- lowers blood pressure and can also help prevent high blood pressure; this helps to lower your risk of heart problems in the future
- increases energy levels
- stimulates your digestive system
- reduces the risk of chronic diseases
This is all very general though, but now, a new book by Annabel Streets called The Walking Cure examines the different benefits that walking in different landscapes produces, and she targets the benefits by landscape. The author has waded through a great deal of scientific research to present her findings (many of the reports were up to 50 pages long and in language that people like us would struggle to follow), but the process – put over-simply – largely involved mostly comparing groups of people who had walked in certain landscapes with control groups who had not. The book is actually very readable, with anecdotal evidence too.
The book was reviewed in Country Walking magazine, from where much of the following information derives:
- Did you know, for instance, that mountain air (there’s plenty of that on Yr Wyddfa) can specifically help treat anxiety or depression, because at altitude our bodies produce a hormone called erythropoietin, which has an anti-depressant effect.
- Waterfalls, on the other hand (and the Watkin Path springs to mind), produce negative air ions which help to ease respiration. Evidence shows while standing close is best, simply walking past waterfalls is enough to encourage healthier respiration.
- There aren’t many trees on Yr Wyddfa, although the Watkin Path starts through woodland. Trees produce compounds called terpenes, which have a range of antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and calming effects. The older the trees, the more terpenes they produce.
- The Miners’ Track is the path which passes the most lakes, and it appears that the weed and plankton in a healthy lake “gust out little aerosols of nutrients” which can help reduce blood pressure and relax the nervous system. The larger the lake, the greater the effect.
- Other landscapes too have benefits, such as coastlines, meadows, heaths, river banks, disused railway lines and country lanes. The book examines curative and therapeutic benefits of 20 easy-to-find landscapes, both rural and urban.
Yr Wyddfa can’t provide all 20 landscapes, but the wider National Park certainly can; even its shorelines can help heal grief and insomnia.
Doctors often promote the benefits of walking, but just imagine if they could prescribe a walk in a particular environment as a way of helping a patient, whether it be a physical ailment or a state of mind.
And when our bodies seem to be telling us that they want to walk in a particular landscape, maybe, just maybe, we ought to listen and respond.
(The Walking Cure is published by Bloomsbury Tonic (2025) and is now available in paperback or for download.)