John Merrill, from London, England, is a marathon walker, and of which he remains a leading, if not the only, member. He attended Westbourne School in Sheffield, Grosvenor House School in Harrogate, Wennington School in Wetherby Yorkshire between 1955-61. He is active in two areas: firstly undertaking extremely long walks, and secondly publishing books about walking, dealing with both his experiences and describing routes for readers to follow. In January 2003, he was made an Honorary Master of Derby University, for his walking and writing. He also lectures extensively about walking. By 2016 he has walked more than, worn out 129 pairs of boots, over 1,500 pairs of socks and 47 rucksacks. A keen skier both downhill and cross country; a cyclist and Qigong teacher. His father invented and patented a chemical pump that he manufactured - The Merrill Pump -which sold world wide. On 17 July 2010, John was ordained as an Independent Multi-faith minister. In September 2013, John graduated as a Shibashi Qigong teacher.
Across Europe - Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland - the Alps end to end to Nice - then round the Mediterrean to Spain and across the Pyrenees to Hendaye - 107 days, 3,000 miles with 600,000 feet of ascent.
Le puy to santiago
Seville to santiago
Laos, algarve via fatima to santiago
East of England Heritage Route -
Entire coastline of Great Britain - - first ever undertaking.
St. Olav's Way - Norway 420 miles, from Oslo to Trondheim.
First crossing of the Jotunheimen mountains and glaciers over a month. Crossed 28 glaciers and climbed all the highest peaks.
Hong Kong - 400 miles - walked all the trails on the islands.
Himalayas - Alpine style route to Everest Base Camp & Cho Oyu; Around Annapurna and to Annapurna base camp; the Lantang Valley; Kashmir & Ladakh.
All the trails and mountains in New Mexico - 2,000 miles.
In all Merrill has calculated that he walked over between 1969 and 2010, raising over £756,000 in charity sponsorship.
Books published
Merrill is author of more than 430 walking guides which he prints and publishes himself, and his book sales are in excess of 4 million. His best known work is possibly ‘Turn Right at Land’s End’ about his walk around Britain’s coastline. He has created many long distance walks including The Limey Way, The Peakland Way, and Jennifer's Challenge Walk and more than 50 Day Challenge walks which have been used to raise more than £1 million for different charities. He has also written about non-walking matters such as Sir Joseph Paxton and other famous Derbyshire figures.
Walking practices
Merrill has an idiosyncratic methodology which involves never taking breaks during a day’s walk, carrying no water, travelling unaccompanied and walking thirty miles a day and more at a constant rate of three miles per hour. He has suggested that the limit of endurance is approximately 200 miles per week. He claims on his website that "you need to walk before you are settled into the task and have comfy feet. After you are really adjusted and by you can push yourself relentlessly. By of continuous walking you are at your peak performance, but after you are physically declining".
