Walking Time Calculator - KPH or MPH

How long does it take to walk x miles or kilometres is a crucial safety question which should be considered in planning any walk. This Walk Time Calculator is based on Naismith's Rule with allowances for slower walkers.

If you have not used this calculator before, it is worth reading the rationale below first.

Walking Time Calculator (MPH)             Walking Time Calculator (KPH)

Note: The calculators are based on an Excel spreadsheet. Depending on model/set-up, on a mobile phone or tablet, you may need a (usually) free Excel app. to make this work and/or touching the entries should give you an 'edit' option, to enter your figures. These are live documents So you may need to wait if already in use.

The 'bible' for calculating walking/hiking times has traditionally been Naismith's Rule. This  was devised by one William W. Naismith, a Scottish mountaineer, in 1892. Its assumptions were:

1) Allow 1 hour for every 3 miles (4.83 kilometres) walked;

2) Add 1 hour for every 2000 feet climbed (equivalent to 1 minute for every 10 metres)

There have been as many attempts to 'improve' this basic rule as grains of sand. For a start, Naismith was a very fit mountaineer and not everyone walks at 3 mph/4.83 kph). Over pavement it might be fine but in the countryside this would be pretty fast, especially allowing for stiles, uneven or muddy ground etc. Speed alone does not take account of descents, either to add time if difficult, or deduct time if an easy slope down which one can gallop. Then there is the weather, headwinds, driving rain, fog, wayfinding etc all of which are likely to slow you down.  Experience suggests 2 to 2.5 mph (3.2 to 4.0 kph) is more realistic. Unless you know for sure you walk faster than this, assume a slower speed to avoid being caught out. Some suggest 4 mph (6.4 kph) is a 'standard' walking pace but this is wildly optimistic in most circumstances, even in an urban setting.

Essentially, there are too many variables to make an exact science out of this but Naismith's Rule, with the odd tweak, is as far as we seem to have got.

With all that in mind, the rationale behind my calculator as follows.

1) Enter the walk distance
The calculation for the first result line assumes Naismith's Rule of 1 hour for every 3 miles/4.83 kilometres walked plus minutes for any proportion of a mile.

2) Total climbing in metres based on Ordnance Survey maps in the UK.
This is not the summit height and to be accurate, needs to take into account the downs and ups you may encounter on an ascent. You can assess this from an OS map. The brown contour lines on a 1:25000 scale map are 5 or 10 metres apart, with heights indicated. A thicker line appears every 50 metres. However it is quite hard work. I now enter this information on all new walks based on mapping software calculations and am slowly catching up for previous walks but this exercise will take some time. In the meantime, if you download the GPX files for the walks then load on http://bikehike.co.uk via the Course Creator → Load Routes command, this will give you the information. Maybe consider a donation to them? My calculation adds 1 minute for every 10 metres if the normal walking pace is Naismith's 3 mph and a proportionate addition for slower speeds - see item 6) below.

3) Total steep/difficult descent in metres
The calculation adds one minute for every 20 metres, again with proportionate adjustment for slower walkers. You really need to decide here whether the descent is going to make life easy or difficult, or have little material impact. The closer together the brown contour lines are on the OS map, the steeper it will be. Often a difficult section might be offset by an easy section. I suggest if it looks obviously easy, leave the section blank and treat a speedier finish as a bonus or, if some looks difficult (say half the descent), just put in a figure for that section. Please do not use minus figures to denote easy terrain as this will make figures inaccurate for the lower speed categories, see below. An alternative might be to leave this blank but add some minutes into the Contingency Section.

4) Total Rest/Lunchstops in minutes
This simply adds the minutes you enter.

5) Contingency in minutes
This again simply adds the minutes you enter but is included as a reminder to consider miscellaneous items. You could add time for any anticipated issue not covered elsewhere, such as boggy ground, weather, scrambling, inexperience, time to look at an interesting site etc.

6) What if my normal walk speed is under 3 mph
The results of the calculation are shown below the entered figures, firstly at the standard Naismith 3 mph. However it seems to me that if someone normally only achieves a slower speed than the 3 mph (you can only be certain about this based on personal experience), it is probable that they will also need more than the standard 1 minute for every 10 metres of ascent or 20 metres of descent. I have therefore provided the options shown and adjusted the calculation for ascents/descents in direct proportion to the longer time taken for walking.

Please note, in the unlikely event your walk is very long, any times over 24 hours will not show accurately. 

As stated above, this is attempting to create an impossible science but any feedback on how effective these calculations are would be appreciated.

All information on this site is given in good faith and no liability is accepted in respect of any damage, loss or injury which might result from acting on it.