Walks
Belfast: a bubbling spring of twentieth-century poetry
Community, fellowship, exchange KEY DATA Terrain: Urban Starting point: Titanic Belfast, BT3 9EP Distance: 6 km (3.5 miles) Time: 1.5 hours Map: The route can be found on Google at: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en&mid=1wTcBVs0EpR8AQ86EnbyYceyCu5x1szQ-&ll=54.58245952594075%2C-5.956679726733729&z=14 Facilities: All city facilities BELFAST AND ITS TWENTIETH-CENTURY POETS If you had to name one city in these isles as the city of poetry, it […]
Canterbury, Kent: Geoffrey Chaucer
‘Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote… Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially from every shires ende Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to […]
Cardiff: Roald Dahl
ROALD DAHL (1916-1990) In the nineteenth century, Cardiff was the world’s largest coal exporting port, and this created a diaspora around the docks of migrant communities from up to 45 nationalities that served the shipping business. These included Norwegian, Somali, Yemeni, Spanish, Italian, Maltese, Caribbean and Irish people, creating the unique multicultural character of the […]
Glencoyne Bay, Ullswater, Lake District: Wordsworth’s Daffodils
‘Beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze’ GLENCOYNE BAY Imagine for a moment this ‘spot in time’. The spot is between the main road and the water at the south end of Glencoyne Bay, now also known as Wordsworth Point. The time is April 15th, 1802, vividly described by Dorothy […]
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire: William Shakespeare
‘Upon entering the town of Stratford, a feeling, I trust, something more elevated than of mere curiosity, naturally depicts the steps of every admirer of our divine Poet towards that spot which gave birth to the most extraordinary genius this or any other country has ever produced…’ Samuel Ireland, 1795 KEY DATA Terrain: Pavements throughout […]
Sandaig, Glenelg, The Highlands; Gavin Maxwell, Ring of Bright Water
‘Nowhere in all the West Highlands and Islands have I seen any place of so intense or varied beauty in so small a compass’ The inspiration for this walk…The Ring of Bright Water (1960) This was very much my parents’ book, I had noticed it on the bookshelf at home, but it hadn’t really caught […]
Inspiring Places: Bournemouth, Dorset
‘The Evergreen Valley’, ‘A city set in a garden’ ‘The pines, the chines, steeply-rising cliffs, parks, gardens, heathlands, amusements, esplanades, sands, and sprawl add up to the strange unique character of Bournemouth. A fascinating, pine-scented phenomenon’. Thomas Hardy ‘The real Bournemouth is all pines and pines and pines and flowering shrubs, lawns, begonias, azaleas, bird-song, […]
Near Sawrey, Lake District: Beatrix Potter
‘Hill Top is to be presented to my visitors as if I had just gone out and they had just missed me’ The inspiration for this walk… The World of Peter Rabbit (from 1902 onwards) My parents would go round to their friends Bill & Laddie’s for dinner frequently and, only being about five years […]
Alnwick Castle, Northumberland: JK Rowling
‘The Hogwarts of the North’ JK ROWLING (1965-) The Harry Potter series of novels has sold over 500 million copies, making it the best-selling book series in history. The films have also been immensely popular, and a sub-world of tourism has built up to see the places where the films were shot. Ever since JK […]
Southwark, London: Chaucer and Shakespeare
‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances’ KEY DATA Terrain: pavement Starting point: London Bridge tube (SE1 2SW) Distance: 8 km (1.1 miles) Walking time: 28 mins Map: can be found online at https://explore.osmaps.com/en/route/10773916/Southwark-London-Chaucer-and-Shakespeare Facilities: Pubs, theatre facilities SOUTHWARK In medieval times […]
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