The Path is the tenth studio album by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands, released in April 2003. The album was conceived as an "instrumental journey" around the South West Coast Path, a 630-mile coastline path opened in 1978 in the duo's native West Country, and a celebration of the coastline's "sights and sounds". It is the band's only completely instrumental album, with each of its songs named after and inspired by different locations on the path. It was a project between Show Of Hands and The South West Coast Path Team, as part of the latter's celebrations for the silver jubilee (25th anniversary) of the path. As such the album is endorsed by various organisations who own different parts of the path, namely The Countryside Agency, The National Trust and English Heritage Commission,.and the music is ambient instrumentals inspired by different locations around the coastline.

The duo hoped that, with the album, listeners would be inspired to discover or rediscover the "endless fascination" of the coast path. The album was released on 14 April 2003 by the duo's own label Hands on Music, a month before they released their following album Country Life. In July 2012, music from The Path featured in several themed videos on a new interactive official website for the South West Coast Path, which attracts some 400,000 hits a year. One track from the album, "Port Isaac", featured on their compilation album Roots: The Best of Show of Hands (2007).

Show of Hands entered the 2000s by recording an album of cover versions, Covers (2000), which presented a stripped down sound with no overdubs or multitracking. They followed this their second concert at the Royal Albert Hall which was filmed for their VHS concert film The Big Gig (2001), which itself was followed by their ninth studio album, Cold Frontier (2001), which was co-produced between the duo and Mick Dolan, engineer for Steve Winwood. Critical praise greeted both releases, and the duo embarked on The Cold Frontier Tour in November 2001, where they played a great deal of unreleased or "rare" material. The band's live album Cold Cuts (2002), which was drawn from material from the tour, was released to positive reviews. The duo began writing for what they planned to be their next album.

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