Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i Country Walking

On the cover The view from above Kinder Downfall takes in a tiny body of water most miss. Our curious features start on page 27. Talk to us! Share your pics, questions, have a natter - we love to hear from you: facebook.com/countrywalking editorial@countrywalking.co.uk x.com/countrywalking…

EARLY ON IN The Lost Paths, Jack Cornish says something that sounds obvious when you think about it, yet also feels like the most eye-opening fact I've read all year. The first footpaths were created by animals. They were simple desire lines, trodden or bashed out by aurochs, deer or even mammoths, to connect one food or water source or breeding ground with another. We just followed. It's the first of many remarkable reveals and ruminations in Jack's book. Subtitled A History of How We Walk from Here to There, it's the story of the footpaths of England and Wales, conjuring aeons of human history into a riveting story illustrated by on-the-ground walks in places where the tale comes richly to life. As Head of Paths for the Ramblers, Jack…

DONALD ALEXANDER SMITH was a man who could do anything. Born in 1820 in the small Scottish town of Forres, he rose to become one of Britain's foremost empire builders. Emigrating to Canada in 1838 to take up a job with the all-powerful Hudson Bay Company, he would become one of its most senior and wealthy officers, build the Canada Pacific Railway, become president of the Bank of Montreal and even turn down the chance to be the country's next Prime Minister in 1896. Instead he chose to return to the country of his birth as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, moving into a grand new house at the heart of his new estate between Loch Leven and the Pap of Glencoe, and luxuriating in the new title of…

15 of the finest coastal miles in Cornwall | The folly built for love in Berkshire | Climb Britain’s third highest summit… and more great walks… INTERACTIVE ART Artist Maggi Hambling created this Scallop sculpture at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and encourages people to climb it, sit on it... or even to make love beneath it. Enjoy it however you wish on Walk 9. SOUTH WEST SOUTH EAST EAST MIDLANDS NORTH WEST NORTH EAST WALES SCOTLAND IRELAND…

EVERYDAY LIFE CAN be so cataract-forming – the routine, our responsibilities, the great attention-hog of the information superhighway. It can all so easily blind us to the wonder and fortune of our situation – the cleverest-known creatures in the universe, alive in this endlessly amazing world, at a time remote from dinosaurs AND scurvy, each piloting the most wonderful flesh-and-blood exploratory device ever devised. But it takes just a walk and a wonder to see it all so much clearer. Your boots and your curiosity are your soul's survival kit. Nothing gives as generously or asks as little. Walking doesn't monopolise your attention, time or budget, or drive a wedge between you and friends, family and responsibilities. The joy it generates isn't confined to itself, but overspills into all the…

On New Year's Day a man sets off from Trafalgar Square to win the largest wager ever placed. If he can 'walk around the world, masked, pushing a Perambulator' he gets £21,000 (£2.1 million now). Further rules stipulate his identity must remain secret; he must visit every English county, plus Scotland, Wales, Ireland and 17 more countries; he can only make money by selling postcards; and he must find a wife. Newspapers track his zig-zag hike across Britain from Kent (where he's arrested for peddling without a licence) to Cornwall to Norfolk to Swansea to Coventry in October. The trail then goes cold, until he appears in Italy in 1914, having walked 30,000 miles through 12 countries – and war ends the bet. Or so one story goes. In fact,…

SEEN YOU'VE WON? Email walk1000miles@countrywalking.co.uk with your address and a pic of you holding this edition to claim your precious! #minichallenge21 Find a monument to something odd #minichallenge22 Photograph a bird of prey #minichallenge23 Lego in the landscape Join the community: facebook.com/groups/walk1000miles #minichallenge24 Cook something en route #minichallenge25 Find the oldest bit of litter…

The View REVENGE IS CLEARLY a dish best enjoyed cold for reader Paul Oates of Huddersfield, who points out that I had got something wrong in the October 2023 Country Walking. I'm teasing. There was nothing vengeful about Paul's letter. He merely gently pointed out that he doubted that I can see the Napoleonic war memorial on Stoodley Pike from my high vantage point in the BBC studios at MediaCity Salford. And indeed he was right. I was looking in almost entirely the wrong direction. Paul thought that it was much more likely to be the tower on Hartshead Pike, overlooking Mossley in Tameside. Thus chastened, surely no walker with blood in their veins could have resisted the lure of going to check. So the next sunny Saturday, I did.…

WALK HERE Turn to Walk 12 in this issue for a round walk featuring Much Wenlock, Wenlock Edge and some of the key sites of the Wenlock Olympian Games. GETTING HERE Much Wenlock is 8 miles south-west of Telford (A169) and 13 miles south-east of Shrewsbury (A458). The main town car park is St Mary's Lane Car Park (postcode TF13 6AE). Regular bus 436 heads there from Shrewsbury (Select Bus Services, 01785 330764), as does the infrequent 8A from Telford (Arriva Midlands North, 0344 800 4411). WHERE TO STAY Country Walking stayed at Corve Barn Farm, a spacious rural retreat 6 miles south-west of Much Wenlock. There are 10 static caravans on site, as well as five cottages that sleep between four and six. The farm's close to Wenlock Edge,…

In addition to being a gifted artist, George Smith was also a wordsmith, although only fragments of his written work remain. Mostly they are poems written in anger at the 'petty tyrants' (landowners) who impeded his dreams of living wild. But one account of a conversation with a friend he made in Bowness-on-Windermere illustrates his beautiful turn of phrase: 'I am a worshipper of Nature. But, ah! she is a fickle goddess. I never know where I have her. Sometimes I lay down on a mossy bank, and she is so lovely that I drop asleep, while she bathes my face in sunshine, and fans my locks with soft breeze; and lo! when I wake up again, in an hour or two, she is frowning on me coldly, and clattering the…

The View SIGHTS | SOUNDS | WONDERS | IDEAS | COOL STUFF VIEWFINDER In a bright woodland glade, on a warm heath or sand dune, you might glimpse what looks like a tiny dinosaur. Measuring up to 15 centimetres from its pointed face to the tip of its tail, the common lizard likes to warm its cold-blooded body in the sunshine, building energy to hunt flies and spiders, which it stuns with a violent shake before swallowing whole. The hue of this little reptile varies but brown is most usual, patterned with stripes and spots, and a flamboyant yellow or orange underbelly on the males. More than half its length is tail which it can self-amputate when threatened, leaving the still-twitching appendage to distract a predator while it makes its escape.…

This much-loved walkers' snack was born in Lancashire in 1864, when an Austrian confectioner at Fryer's made a mould for jelly bears, but they came out looking like newborns. They were first called Unclaimed Babies, after the children abandoned on church steps, but when Bassetts started production in 1918 they renamed them Peace Babies to celebrate the end of WWI. Shortages halted production in WWII; on relaunch in 1953 they were Jelly Babies. In the 60s, Beatles' fans pelted the stage with the sweets, after George Harrison said he liked them. The fourth Doctor Who, played by Tom Baker, adored the 'delicacy I discovered on Earth' and even offered one to Davros. For decades, all colours and flavours were the same shape, but in 1989 they got different designs and…

BROUGHT TO YOU IN PARTNERSHIP WITH 500, 1000 MILES & BEYOND! Delivery now or on completion: www.walk1000miles.co.uk/shop The great gift 'The first walk I can remember doing with my dad – from Endcliffe Park to Forge Dam, in Sheffield. We did it off and on through my life but my strongest memory of the walk was when I was 16 and he knew I was stressed about exams so off we went through the woods to the café at the Dam. Every time I smell wild garlic, I remember the love of my dad and that special time we spent together walking. He passed over 10 years ago but his love of walking was one of his gifts to me.' Katrina Scott 'I cried at the top' 'Win Hill in…

Take part in one of our mini-challenges, submit your entry with the relevant hashtag in the Facebook group and if we publish your entry, you'll win a money-can't-buy Golden Badger! Entries must be fresh and you have until 18 July for this batch! 31 FIND SOMETHING RARE Show us something we don't see every day – perhaps a four-leaf clover, an uncommon orchid, an architectural rarity, a peculiar happening or grandad paying for the drinks. 32 TAKE A DONUT ON A DAY OUT Because you don't see them out and about much and goodness me resisting the temptation to eat it before lunch marks you out as a person of real moral fibre. 33 EAT A FLOWER Specifically, this one – a mallow. The leaves, flowers and seeds are edible and rich…

WALK HERE It's 12 miles by crow from the ballon stone at Welham Green to the one at Standon Green End. Lots of footpaths and route options; the one we walked was 18 miles, with an overnight in Hertford after 11 miles. GETTING HERE Station at Welham Green with trains from London Moorgate and Welwyn Garden City. At Standon Green End, bus 331 runs down Ermine Street (hourly, Mon-Sat) to Ware (which has trains to London Liverpool Street) and Hertford (North station for Moorgate or Stevenage). Or bus 323 and 724 run frequently from Hertford to Welwyn (or 641 to Hatfield), for train back to Welham. End to end journey time approx 90 mins. WHERE TO EAT Shops in Welham Green for supplies, then The Woodman (thewoodman.uk) at Wildhill serves…

WALK HERE Starting at a small car park when you reach the forest east of Boat of Garten, a path runs close to the road, heading towards Loch Garten and its nature centre. Follow the loch's north and west shores before heading south-west to Loch Mallachie. From there, good tracks head north-west back to the car park. GETTING HERE Loch Garten is 8 miles northeast of Aviemore. The nearest village is Boat of Garten, to where numerous buses head from Aviemore (including 37/X37 between Aviemore and Inverness). Abernethy Forest (and this walk) begins ¾ mile east of here. If driving, use the small car park at forest edge on reaching B970 east of Boat of Garten. If full, park at Loch Garten. WHERE TO EAT Sandwiches and snacks are available…

WALK HERE Turn to Walk 17 in this issue for your full route guide. GETTING HERE Dodd is best accessed via the Forestry England trails which start from the Old Sawmill tearoom at Mirehouse, on the A591 between Keswick and Bassenthwaite. WHERE TO STAY CW stayed at the AA 4-star Trout Hotel in nearby Cockermouth (01900 823591; trouthotel.co.uk). Gorgeous bedrooms from £112 pppn, plus a fabulous menu including Scottish salmon with samphire and crayfish cream sauce (£21) and possibly the very best eggs benedict Nick has ever had. It's perfectly situated on the high street next to Wordsworth's house, and has a garden sloping down to the River Derwent. WHERE TO EAT Obviously the Trout (see above) but also it'd be rude not to try the tea/coffee and slice of…

YOUR COMPLETE BUYING GUIDE TO OUR TESTERS We give each product a thorough test on the many miles our reviewers walk every month, and we always test products for both men and women. For this test, Lara Dunn (LD) and Nick Hallissey (NH) have taken these trousers, shorts and leggings up hill and down dale in the Malverns, the Cotswolds, the Lake District and the coastlines of Durham and Sussex. IT'S A SOURCE of delight to us that one of our most-liked videos on Facebook, some years back, was an Oscar-worthy film of gear tester Nick demonstrating a new pair of zip-off trousers atop Crag Fell in the Lake District. Obviously the scenic setting helped, but we hope it was the subject matter that actually brought people to the video.…

Email your picture, along with a few words about the walk and your contact details to cwroutes@bauermedia.co.uk THIS MONTH'S PRIZE WINNER MERTHYR VALE, Route 21, December 2023 Here is a photo of us tackling this walk. It was a fresh and bright Saturday and we could see snow-capped Pen y Fan in the distance. We live nearby but had never done this route. We thoroughly enjoyed it and had amazing views from the top. Well worth the climb. Amy Edwards, by email CARREG CENNEN CASTLE, Route 20, Spring 2024 I moved to Wales three years ago and retired just over 12 months ago. The time was therefore ripe to go and explore a Welsh castle. Castell Carreg Cennen is a fascinating non-romantic ruin, so well worth a visit. Just myself and…

Rob Holmes, Group Art Director Miles walked this month: 74 Like reader Leanne Woodall writes on page 17, I've held an ambition to see the Northern Lights for many years. And like her, I've had near misses too – visiting a relentlessly wet and cloudy Reykjavík in the 90s, I was told by one smug Brit, “You should have been here last week, even in the city they were so intense they made me flinch!” Then last year we were teased by the merest hint of a distant glow on the horizon while holidaying on Orkney – not exactly what you'd call a 'display' though. So earlier this month when my daughter got a 'super-high sun activity' alert on her Aurora Watch phone app, (like father, like daughter!), I was…