Low(er)-tech options

WEBSITE

Price: usually free to sign up, but Ordnance Survey maps cost extra. Okay, it’s hardly low-tech, but it does mean manually plotting out your exact route to measure it. Both the OSmaps and Viewranger apps have website equivalents (both synchronise with your phone via your account). As with the apps, premium features (like Ordnance Survey mapping) cost extra, but you can plot and save routes for nothing using free maps.

PEDOMETER

Price: £25 for the Silva Ex Distance (which gives distance readings) While a basic pedometer will just count steps, some calculate distance walked based on your stride length. But as they don’t account for changing stride length (over hilly terrain), the reading may not be especially accurate.

MAP ROMER

Price: about £2.50 for a standalone romer. It’s fine for rough, on-thehoof calculations, but an accurate route distance is difficult to ascertain using a romer, especially if your walk is long and follows minutely wiggly paths.

A PIECE OF STRING

Price: pennies Used in conjunction with your map’s scale bar, a simple piece of string (cut to a scale mile’s distance) is a cheap, tried and tested way of measuring a bendy route on the map. However, it can be a fiddly method and requires great care to be accurate.

MAP MEASURING WHEEL

Price: around £4 A quick and fairly accurate way to measure miles on a map. But depending on the wheel you’re using, you may need to apply a little mental arithmetic to convert scales. A faltering mechanism can also skew readings.