SHORT of her proving conclusively that “Brexit means Brexit”, Theresa May’s premiership seems unlikely to deliver a bigger surprise than this: next to her much-favoured kitten heels, her footwear of choice might well be – walking boots.

Have we ever had a rambling Prime Minister before? Rambling as in – to quote Chambers – “to walk for pleasure”. Probably not, though there may be no shortage of PMs fitting Chambers’ other definition: “to wander in mind or discourse.”

It is said that in taking her recent walking holiday in the Alps, Theresa May was “following in the footsteps of Baroness Thatcher.” Hmm… Notoriously, Mrs Thatcher - Baroness if you like - was loathe to take any holiday. No way could she ever be considered a genuine sister of the boot.

But before me as I write is a picture of a rucksacked Mrs May, a walking pole in each hand, about to stride out over a rock-strewn hillside above Zermatt. And, more to our point here, there’s further evidence of her zeal for walking.

According to The Daily Telegraph, she recently presented Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor and “a fellow walking enthusiast,” with two books on hiking – Great Mountain Days in Snowdonia and Coast to Coast With Wainwright, the legendary fellwalker’s account with superb photographs by Derry Brabbs. It seems safe to assume Mrs May has completed Wainwright’s famous trek. But is she aware, one wonders, that her backbencher Rishi Sunak, the member for Richmond, is campaigning to have the renowned walk officially designated a national trail?

By many a country mile, the 192-mile trek, launched by Wainwright in 1973, has been Britain’s most popular long-distance walk. Its exclusion from the elite of officially designated national trails, which would bring money for maintenance, is nothing short of a scandal. I attribute it to plain jealousy – resentment by the official agencies that they failed to spot the potential of a walk linking the three national parks of the Lakes, Dales and Moors.

Mr Sunak presents his campaign as a “project moving forward.” First step, he says, is to “build a coalition of support.” This looks like another long trail a-winding. But the revelation of Mrs May’s keenness for walking, with Wainwright’s Coast to Coast her English favourite, surely signals an opportunity to cut it short. A six-word note on Mrs May’s desk, to catch her eye after the summer recess - “Wainwright’s Coast to Coast – National Trail?” - should do the trick.

That’s not all. From that Coast to Coast book gifted to Mrs Merkel, Mrs May will know that in it Wainwright states that a key factor in his choice of route was that “nowhere along this line was there an industrial blemish.” Yet, before this Christmas, a start is expected to be made on the world’s largest potash mine – exactly where Coast to Coast walkers emerge from the delightful valley of Littlebeck, to begin their final three miles to the coast.

Alas, it is too late for even a Prime Minister to halt that epic vandalism. But Mrs May will recognise the urgency of securing national designation for Wainwright’s inspired creation. Because “a project moving forward” is unlikely to move fast enough to prevent the the case for national status being fatally undermined – by an industrial monster ruining the walk’s climax.