Walks
Greenway House, Dart Estuary, Devon: Agatha Christie
‘It is a beautiful place,’ said Poirot. ‘A beautiful house, beautiful grounds. It has about it a great peace, great serenity.’ KEY DATA Terrain: easy going Starting point: Churston station, Galmpton, TQ5 0LL Distance: 7 km (5.4 miles) Walking time: 2 hours OS Map: OS Explorer 20. A map can also be found online at […]
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. […]
Lyme Regis Cobb, Dorset: Jane Austen & John Fowles
‘Show me the exact place where Louisa Musgrove fell!’ KEY DATA Terrain: careful with your footing on the Cobb – you wouldn’t want to be going the way of Louisa after all! Starting point: Cobb Gate Car Park, Marine Parade, Lyme Regis DT7 3QD Facilities: Toilets, pub Best time of year: November for Persuasion, but […]
Inspiring Places: London, East End
‘Walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city; the changes, shifts, breaks in the cloud helmet, movement of light on water.’ KEY DATA Terrain: Park & pavement Start: Stoke Newington Overground, N16 6YA Finish: Dockland Light Railway – Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich, SE10 9ED Distance: 14.7 km (9.2 miles) Walking time: […]
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 […]
Bath, Somerset: Jane Austen
‘I walk: I prefer walking’ KEY DATA Terrain: Pavements, hilly bits Starting point: 13 Queen Square, BA1 2HJ Distance: 6.4 km (4 miles) Walking time: 1 hr 56 mins Map: can also be found online at https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/10535476/Bath-Literary-Ramble Facilities: Everything JANE AUSTEN (1775-1818) Jane Austen visited Bath in 1797 and again in 1799 before moving there in 1801 when her […]
Morden Tower, Newcastle: the modern poetry movement
‘I learned more reading at Morden Tower than I had at a hundred universities’ MORDEN TOWER We came across the Morden Tower on a walk around Newcastle’s thirteenth-century city wall which can still be seen in several parts of today’s city. Here, on the northwest side, it is most evident, a stone’s throw from St […]
Glastonbury, Somerset: Searching for King Arthur
‘All these things considered, can no man reasonably gainsay but there was a king of this land named Arthur…you may see his sepulchre in the monastery of Glastonbury.’ William Caxton, preface to Malory’s Morte d’Arthur KEY DATA Terrain: steep climb Starting point: St John’s Car Park, Glastonbury, 10 St John’s Square, BA6 9LJ Distance: 4.3 km […]
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