Navigation, Climbing, Mountaineering, Caving, First Aid and Winter Skills Courses

The Green/No Car Transport Guide to Pure Outdoor Courses

The reason for writing this short article on transport is that we get many enquiries about transport from those living in the South, especially around the London area. This article outlines each of the different areas available to you on a Pure Outdoor Course.

Location: Peak District Courses

The great thing about this easily accessible beautiful national park is that you can attend a Pure Outdoor course without the need to take your car. Our Peak District courses are based a short train ride away from Sheffield (only just over a couple of hours on the train from London). The meeting point on the first day is the Grindleford Train Station Café, convenient for the train but the times are a bit awkward on a Sunday. However, your instructor will be in the area on the day of the course and would be more than happy to pick you up from your accommodation over the weekend. Just enquire when you make a booking to confirm this.

Booking transport

The course will start at 9:15am each day and finish at approximately 3.30pm-4pm. This leaves you enough time to catch perhaps a 6pm train home. A good place to get your return train from would be Hathersage station, or possibly Sheffield if your instructor from the course is going that way.

Location: Lake District

Courses are based around the Coniston area in the Lake District. There is no train station here but there is one down the road at Windermere. To get here you need to catch a mainline train to Oxenholme Lake District (OXN) and change for Windermere (WDM). Here you could stay the night, or catch a bus to Coniston. There is a regular bus service. Alternatively, get in touch with your course instructor and perhaps he/she will be going past to give you a lift. Again, about 3 hours in total from London.

Location: North Wales

You will need to get to Bangor to attend any of these courses. Llanberis is a bus ride away from Bangor and courses are based here. You can catch a direct train heading to ‘Holyhead’ from London or change at Chester. The ride is very scenic as you head along the North Wales coastline. If you are planning on using public transport for this course, get in touch with the course instructor as they are more than likely to be shooting around the valley like a headless chicken trying to get a cheeky climb in here and there whilst dodging the rain. You can guarantee a lift if it is raining!

Location: North Yorkshire Moors

A little bit more interesting, we start the navigation courses in Thornton-le-Dale and use Dalby forest and other moorland areas. The best way to access this village is by bus from somewhere such as Leeds or York. The nearest train station is Pickering.

I hope this helps you find your way around and maybe it will encourage more of you to use public transport to and from our courses.