United Kingdom
Slad, Gloucestershire: Laurie Lee
‘All my beginnings were hatched into this very compact series of narrow, brief valleys, which are like seed pods.’ KEY DATA Terrain: Hills and fields Starting point: The War Memorial, Slad (GL6 7QD) Distance: 8.3 km (5.2 miles) Walking time: 2 hrs 53 mins OS Map: OS Explorer 80. The map can also be found […]
Isle of Jura, Argyll and Bute: George Orwell
‘An extremely un-get-at-able place’ ‘The walks are wonderful’ KEY DATA Terrain: boggy in places, potentially unforgiving weather Starting point: Road End (Jura bus from Craighouse); or water taxi to Kinuachdrachd. Sturdy bicycles are also an option for proceeding north from Road End Distance: 18.2 km (11.4 miles) return Walking time: 5 hr 16 mins return […]
Inspiring Places: The River Cam, Cambridge
‘In Arcadia’; ‘That was our place’ KEY DATA Terrain: easy going Starting point: Trumpington Park & Ride, 43 Hauxton Rd, CB2 9FT (take the bus into the city centre first, then return here on foot from Byron’s Pool via Consort Avenue) Distance: 6.8 km (4.3 miles) Time: 1 hr 45 mins OS Map: OS Explorer […]
Helpston, Cambridgeshire: John Clare
‘Everything about the place, in fact, which made it precisely this place, and not that one, was forgotten’ KEY DATA Terrain: no contours, excellent paths Starting point: Woodgate, Helpston (PE6 7ED) Distance: 6 km (4.1 miles) Time: 1hr 42 mins OS Map: Explorer 235. The map can also be found at https://explore.osmaps.com/en/route/10644761/Helpston-Cambridgeshire-John-Clare Facilities: Pub, village shop […]
Zennor & St Ives, Cornwall: DH Lawrence & Virginia Woolf
KEY DATA Terrain: Substantial ups & downs on coast path, firm going Starting point: Albert Rd, St Ives, TR26 2EH Distance: 17.8 km (11. 1 miles) Time: 5 hrs 45 mins OS Map: OS Explorer 102. The map can also be found online at https://explore.osmaps.com/en/route/10642080/Zennor–St-Ives-Cornwall-DH-Lawrence–Virginia-Woolf- Facilities: Hotels, restaurants, pubs, shops, toilets DH LAWRENCE ‘When we came over […]
Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire: George Bernard Shaw
‘Walk! Not bloody likely!’ SHAW’S CORNER Shaw’s Corner was George Bernard Shaw’s home for over 40 years, from 1906 to his death in 1950; and because he left his estate to the National Trust, much of the house is preserved just as he left it, making it easy to imagine his life there. The house […]
Chawton Cottage, Hampshire: Jane Austen
‘Our Chawton home, how much we find Already in it to our mind; And how convinced that when complete It will all other houses beat That ever have been made or mended With rooms concise or rooms distended’ KEY DATA Terrain: flat but potentially muddy across fields Starting point: Jane Austen House Museum, GU34 1SD […]
Coniston Water, Lake District: Arthur Ransome’s Swallows & Amazons
Lake District, Coniston Water: Swallows & Amazons ‘All the places in the books are to be found, but not arranged quite as the ordnance maps’ The inspiration for this walk…Swallows & Amazons (1930s) I must have scorched through the Swallows and Amazon series in a matter of weeks when I was about eight years old. […]
Birmingham, West Midlands: J. R. R. Tolkien
Birmingham, West Midlands: J. R. R. Tolkien ‘I took the idea of the hobbits from the village people and children.’ The inspiration for this walk…Lord of the Rings (1948) The Lord of the Rings was a hand down from my brother, for whom it was a hand down from my sister. And it got devoured […]
Inspiring Places: Oxford, Oxfordshire
‘Sweet city with her dreaming spires’ WALK DATA Distance: 5.4km (3.4 miles) Walk Time: 1hr 24 mins Start & finish: The Eagle & Child pub, 49 St Giles, OX1 3LU (the pub was purchased in Oct 2023 by The Ellison Institute of Technology, and they have promised to ‘refurbish and reopen the iconic venue’.) Map: Can […]
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