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Why local hills are the perfect training ground

You do not need to drive for hours to practise navigation. In fact, the hills closest to home are often the best classroom. The terrain is familiar, the escape routes are obvious, and you can focus entirely on the skills rather than worrying about getting lost in the middle of nowhere. Treat your local fell, moorland edge or country park as a training ground. Short, repeated sessions build muscle memory far better than one long, stressful day out. And when you do eventually head to remote moorland, the techniques will already feel second nature.

Master your pacing on familiar ground

Pacing is the foundation of accurate navigation, especially when visibility drops. Start by measuring a known 100-metre stretch on flat ground. Walk it naturally and count every double pace — that is every time your left foot lands. Repeat three or four times and note the average. Most adults find it falls between 60 and 70 double paces, but it varies with height, stride and terrain.

Now make it realistic. Measure the same 100 metres uphill, then downhill, then on rough tussocks. You will quickly see how much your count changes. Practise until you can predict your count on different gradients. A simple notebook or phone note is enough. Then test yourself: pick a point 200 metres away, pace to it, and check your map. On local hills you can afford to be wrong, so you learn without consequence.

Bearing practice without the pressure

Bearings are where many walkers freeze up. Remove the fear by practising on short, safe legs. Stand at a known point on the map — a gate, a path junction, a small tarn. Take a bearing to another clear feature 300 to 500 metres away. Set your compass, then walk on that bearing while counting your paces.

• Start with a flat, open field or path where you can see the target.
• Once confident, try a leg where the target is hidden by a spur or trees.
• Practise back bearings: after reaching a point, take a bearing back to where you started. It should be roughly 180 degrees different.
• Try aiming off: deliberately aim 50 metres to one side of a linear feature like a stream, then follow it to your target. This prevents overshooting.

Do this five or six times in an afternoon. The repetition turns a fiddly skill into a smooth habit.

Feature recognition games

Navigation is largely about matching the map to the ground. Turn that into a game. Every few minutes, stop and ask: what is the most obvious feature around me? A re-entrant, a spur, a knoll, a boundary wall, a change in slope. Then find it on the map. Map to ground, then ground to map.

Set yourself small challenges. Pick a contour line and follow it for 200 metres, noting how the terrain feels. Find a stream junction and predict which way the water flows. Look for crags or scree and check their shape against the map. On a local hill you can do this without pressure, and you will start to see the landscape in three dimensions. A good drill is to walk for ten minutes without looking at the map, then stop and point to your exact location. Check yourself. Repeat.

Small challenges to combine skills

Once pacing, bearings and features feel comfortable, combine them into a mini navigation leg. Design a route of no more than a kilometre with three or four legs. For example: 400 metres on a bearing, then follow a handrail feature like a wall or stream, then pace 150 metres to a small contour feature, then take a back bearing to confirm.

Do it alone or with a friend. If you have a companion, take turns leading and then explain your decisions. You can also create a star exercise: from a central point, take a bearing out for 200 metres, then return on a reciprocal bearing. Repeat in different directions. This builds confidence in your compass work and your ability to relocate. Try it at dusk or in light mist — conditions that mimic a real moorland day — but only where you know the ground well and can walk out safely.

Building confidence step by step

The beauty of practising locally is that you can fail safely. If you miss a target, you simply re-locate and try again. Over a few weeks, increase the difficulty: longer legs, vaguer features, poorer visibility. Always carry a map, compass, and spare warm layer. Tell someone your plan. And remember that the skills you build on your local hill — pacing, bearings, feature recognition — are exactly the ones that will keep you safe on remote moorland. So next time you have a spare hour, grab your map and head for the nearest high ground. The fells will thank you.