Northern Eye Books publish award-winning walking and outdoors books, official guides and maps for the Lake District, Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons, Pembrokeshire Coast, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, other UK National Parks, Wales Coast Path, South West Coast Path, Wales and Cheshire.

  • Tried-and-tested routes
  • Reliable directions
  • Inspiring professional photographs
  • Written by experts
  • Clear and accurate maps
  • Attractive modern design

Targeted, innovative series

Northern Eye Books was set up as a limited company in June 2005 by a small group of seasoned walkers, writers, photographers and graphic designers to publish a range of exciting, quality-led regional outdoor books and guides.

Our aim is to create innovative books to the highest standards.

We believe in good writing, good structure, good design and attractive covers.

Our walking and outdoor books feature carefully chosen routes, easy to follow walking directions, clear maps and fascinating information about places along the way.

We also take great care in selecting and commissioning the finest photographs, as well as proofing, checking and editing each book to ensure it is as accurate as it can be at the time of going to print. Attention to detail is important.

Growing Business

Northern Eye Books is a successful UK business with sustained growth and an increasing market share.

In 2022, Nielsen Bookdata shows, for example, that:

  • Northern Eye Books has moved into the top 35 overall publishers in 2021. We are currently 27th with 0.53% market share.
  • Northern Eye Books are 21st in the ‘Guidebook Publishers’ list — up from 46th in 2019. Guidebook market share 0.83%.
  • Northern Eye Books is 17th in the ‘UK Destination Guidebook’ Top 30 list — up from 28th in 2019.
  • Northern Eye Books has increased its share of the ‘UK Destination Guidebook’ market between 2019 and 2022 — up to 1.36% from 0.83% in 2019.
  • Northern Eye Books is now into the top 10 (10th) in ‘The Outdoor Market’ up from 19th in 2019.
  • For the ‘Outdoor Market – UK Destination Only’, Northern Eye are now in 10th place, up from 16th in 2019.
  • For ‘Walking Guides’, we are now in the Top 30, up to 5th place in 2021 from 9th place in 2019. Walking guide market share of 3.36% up from 2.69% in 2019.
  • Moved into the Top 10 ‘UK Walking Maps’ list in 10th place.

Ordnance Survey Partners

Northern Eye Books Ltd are now full OS Partners. This means that we are one of only 200 or so UK companies who are legally partnered with the OS for mapping. We use OS mapping at 1:25,000 and 1: 50,000 exclusively in our books because we value its accuracy, immediacy, aesthetic appeal and other features.

We also use fully licensed Ordnance Survey mapping on our new and growing range of ‘map snoods’. These are high quality, multi-purpose headwear – or ‘buff’ style’ face masks, neck tubes, neck warmers, neck gaiters, bandanas or headgear.  Our map snoods are popular for all sorts of outdoor pursuits and sports, including, walking, running, cycling, sailing, motorbiking, skiing and snowboarding.

Northern Eye’s neck tubes use genuine, fully licensed UK Ordnance Survey large-scale 1:25,000 mapping of key outdoor locations as attractive, full-colour artwork. Typical UK National Park and other locations include iconic mountains, peaks, lakes, islands and harbours. We also produce snoods with artwork based on historic and antique hand-drawn and etched maps and charts. We call these wearable maps, ‘Outdoor British map art’.

To see the full range, please visit the dedicated website at: https://map-snoods.co.uk.

Company directors

Carl Rogers

Carl originally trained as a graphic designer and worked in marketing as a designer and photographer for almost 20 years before becoming a full time publisher in 2003. Over the last ten years he has combined his interests in writing, publishing, walking and the outdoors to develop a series of popular local books published under the Mara Books imprint.

Carl Rogers is a well-known author of UK walking, climbing and scrambling and outdoor books; popular titles include: Mountain and Hillwalking in Snowdonia Volumes 1 and 2; A Pocket Guide to Snowdon; Top 10 Walks: Snowdonia Mountain Walks; Top 10 Walks: Snowdonia Ridge Walks and Scrambles; Top 10 Walks: Snowdonia Hill walks and Easy Summits; Walking in the Clwydian Range; Walking in the Conwy Valley; Walking in Northern Snowdonia; Coastal Walks around Anglesey; Walking on the Llyn Peninsula; Best Walks in North Wales; and the Official Guide to the Wales Coast Path: Anglesey.

Many of the stunning landscape photographs of Wales and the Welsh mountains that appear throughout our books have been shot and processed by Carl.

Key roles include art direction, design and product development, print and production, stock control and supply chain management, and liaison with our UK distributor, wholesalers and regional reps.

Tony Bowerman

Tony is an anthropology postgraduate with over 25 years’ experience as a publisher, copywriter and heritage and countryside interpretation consultant. He has a long track record of taking complex publishing and interpretive projects through every stage from concept to completion, both for Wordplay Publishing and Northern Eye Books, and for clients such as The National Trust, English Nature, Cadw and the RSPB. Special areas of expertise include history, natural history and the environment.

He has been researching, writing and designing exhibitions, guides and books for national clients since 1986, and has worked for the National Trust at more than twenty properties over the last 20+ years.

He has also been publishing and marketing tourist guides to Chester since 1985. When sales of these guides are combined with guides he has published or reprinted for the National Trust and other major clients, his work has been read by an estimated one to two million people.

He has written several walking books including Walking Cheshire’s Sandstone Trail, Easy Walks on the Sandstone Trail, Top 10 Walks: Wales Coast Path: North Wales Coast, and Walks in Mysterious Cheshire and Wirral (all published by Northern Eye Books).

His key roles in Northern Eye Books include product development, commissioning authors and photographers, series editing, web development and marketing.

Both directors are members of the professional, invitation-only Outdoor Writers and Photographers’ Guild.

Northern Eye Books Limited is registered in England & Wales.

Company Number 05460709

Registered Office

The registered office of Northern Eye Books Limited is Hawthorne Farmhouse, Ince Lane, Wimbolds Trafford, Chester CH2 4JP.