Over the course of 40 years, the Dales Way has gone from a little-known route marked on a map to being one of the major draws to some of Yorkshire’s finest landscape.

Where isolated communities were once seldom visited by hikers, there is now a rural economy thriving on the many long-distance walkers and visitors brought in by the footpath’s fame.

Decades after he first trod the Way, Ilkley man Colin Speakman has paid a fresh visit to the walking route he immortalised in print, with the tenth edition of his guide book to the Dales Way.

The Ilkley to Windermere route of around 80 miles is extended to major centres of population in Leeds, Bradford and Harrogate, by means of link routes.

Yorkshire Dales Society chairman, Mr Speakman, 69, was keen to include all link routes to the walk, an alternative route to a section of the Way, and a brief history of the “People’s Path” in the latest edition of his book.

Coincidentally, in keeping with today’s Big Society aims, the Dales Way was conceived and promoted primarily by individuals and ramblers’ groups. The help of local authorities and the two major National Parks authorities came later. “Feet form paths, not planners,” said Mr Speakman.

The seeds of the new path were sown when the 1968 Countryside Act gave local authorities the chance to give access to riverside paths.

Mr Speakman, and West Riding Ramblers colleague Tom Wilcock, chose the River Wharfe for the creation of a new riverside walking route.

But when they got to the upper reaches of the Wharfe, they found there was no natural conclusion to the route – and decided to take it further.

They continued their work over the Ribblehead watershed into neighbouring valleys, and eventually decided the most logical end to the walk lay at Bowness-on-Windermere, on the shores of England’s largest natural lake.

There had been formal plans by the authorities to create a Pennine path around this time, but those behind this initiative instead waited to see how the Dales Way would turn out.

Unlike the more hilly long-distance walking routes, the Dales Way is regarded as less strenuous.

Mr Speakman and his wife, Fleur, set out to survey the entire route for the first time in 1968.

Tourist accommodation and information was decidedly scarce in those days, as the couple found in one village they stopped at.

Mr Speakman said: “We had to go to the police station, and the policeman said ‘I think Mrs Robinson takes people in’. At one time, there were hardly any places to stay.”

Today, he says, walkers can expect a warm welcome with many places to stay along the route, plus the benefits of better footpaths with signs pointing the way, thanks to local authorities and national parks.

The rural landscape and economy has also changed over the years since the Dales Way was born.

The growth of unnatural forests were a concern in the early days, says Mr Speakman, but these have been felled, and a lot more native trees have since been planted, making a more leafy landscape for walkers.

Mr Speakman’s first guide to the walk, The Dales Way – Ilkley to Windermere by Riverside Path, was first published in 1970.

A group of Bradford Grammar School Venture Scouts were guinea pigs for the new walking route in a rain-soaked April 1969, a month before the walk was officially launched. Some of the Scouts will be reunited with Mr Speakman later this month for the launch of the book’s tenth edition.