Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Country Walking

This month I've been… I FIRST WALKED A National Trail at the age of five. The South Downs Way, in the heady summer of 1981. I say this not to brag (well, maybe a bit) but because it has led me to track down a couple of gems from my late parents’ walking memorabilia. Firstly, the guidebook they used, as published by the Eastbourne Rambling Club. Secondly, a letter written by my dad to the secretary of said club, thanking him for the book and telling the story of our adventure upon the Way. (My dad was the kind of man who would do that, and keep a copy of the letter for good measure.) But here's my favourite bit: ‘What has given us much pride and satisfaction is that…

Twin Peaks Scottish Series, April 1991 The BBC reported on the first of this month that David Lynch's Twin Peaks would be moving location from America's Washington State to Scotland. Reporting Scotland revealed the cult TV show was ‘threatened with the axe’ until Lynch had a brainwave about a ‘whole new set of characters, a whole new place’. The Buchanan Highland Hotel in Drymen – a village on the West Highland Way (see p56) – would become ‘Scotland's answer to One Eyed Jacks, and the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond become the scene of the latest grisly murder’. Scottish stars Robbie Coltrane and Rikki Fulton confirmed they had been approached by Lynch, with Fulton agreeing to a breakfast meeting: ‘Sure, I'll get the sliced sausage in, and away we go.’…

Of all the national trails, The Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path may have the deepest pedestrian roots. The Norfolk Coast Path passes the site of the oldest hominid footprints ever found in Britain, left by a group of homo antecessor walking south along the Happisburgh shore 850,000 years ago. The word Peddar is said to derive from Latin pedester meaning ‘on foot’ and the Way traces a Roman Road 46 miles from Suffolk's Knettishall Heath to Holme next the Sea, passing five inscribed standing stones. Carved by Tom Perkins with words by Hugh Lupton, they are part of an art project called ‘A Norfolk Songline’, created ‘to bring to the surface the layers that are held in the memory of the sand, soil, flint, peat, chalk, clay and carrstone beneath…

SEEN YOU'VE WON? Email walk1000miles@countrywalking.co.uk with your address and a pic of you holding this edition to claim your precious! #minichallenge6 Roll the dice… …and let luck lead the way Allison Bradnock set off on a dice walk hoping to be home by dark. ‘I could be out there still, but the dice rolled in my favour and brought me back home after 2.98 miles. I want to do it again and see where the next one takes me.’ Don Lane set odds for a left turn, evens right and at a three-choice junction a one or six for straight ahead. ‘6½ miles of going round and round.’ Janine Saunders tried it on an evening stroll. ‘I kept the dice in the top of my mitten, shaking it as we…

Lucky laces? In the Footnotes section of your Spring issue, Tom Bailey mentioned that he broke a lace when putting on his boots but fortunately had a spare pair of boots in the car. In the same article he complained that when he carries his binoculars, he never spots anything worth seeing. Yet if he forgets them, he sees something wonderful small and far away. For the past 50 years I have always carried a spare pair of boot laces, but I have never broken a lace! Is this just coincidence? Incidentally, I also carry some tape and cable ties, both of which have been used to repair other people's boots! James Burstow, by email Perfect fit I so enjoy the day every month when the latest edition of Country Walking…

WALK HERE Nick walked the Cleveland Way with the help of Macs Adventure. Macs offers self-guided packages for most of the National Trails as well as many other long-distance paths. In each case, accommodation and baggage transfer are seamlessly taken care of; Nick left his suitcase in reception every morning and was delighted to find it in his next room that evening. Your itinerary and maps are preloaded on the Macs app and you get paper maps and a guidebook too. You just have to get yourself to Helmsley at the start and away from Filey at the end. The 9-day itinerary Nick followed (including two travel days) costs from £995, while the 11-day version (with shorter distances each day) starts from £1255. Full details at macsadventure.com or @macsadventure on…

WALK HERE We took a two-day linear route from Machynlleth to Llanidloes. Most people walk the Glyndŵr's Way in the opposite direction, but this way meant our second day was a little easier. However, both are long, tough days – day one being 16 miles with 1240m ascent, and day two being 14 miles with 700m ascent. GETTING HERE There are several car parks in Llanidloes (including Gro Car Park and Mount Lane), from where the X75 bus connects with either the T12 or the train at Caersws, taking you to Machynlleth (journey time between 1 and 2 hours; check traveline.cymru). WHERE TO STAY Halfway between Machynlleth and Llanidloes is Y Star (pictured) – a homely B&B in Dylife with accommodating owners who will happily serve evening meals if notified…

WALK HERE It's 12 miles from Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse and 10 miles from there to Kinlochleven following the clearly marked trail. GETTING HERE Bridge of Orchy is on the A82 90 minutes north of Glasgow. There's a free car park which says no overnight parking but it refers to camper vans, for which there is a dedicated site, not unoccupied vehicles. Alternatively, it's a 2h 10m Scottish Citylink bus from Glasgow. Buses 44 (Shiel Buses) and 914 (Citylink) take you from Kinlochleven back to Bridge of Orchy in 1h 21m. WHERE TO STAY It's £44 for a bed or £54 for a bed with breakfast in the Kingshouse bunkhouse (bedding provided). Or for more luxury, you can check into the hotel itself, with comfy doubles from £180. See…

GANDYS Grey Marl Classic Long Sleeved Tee £16 Fitting nicely into the Gandys’ tradition of creating an outdoor range with a more laid-back look, the Grey Marl Classic is made from 100% cotton and has a relaxed fit, so is comfortable on a warm day. But when the temperature drops a little it's also designed to be a useful baselayer. Plus, it's nice to know that any purchases at Gandys fund their foundation, helping educate children around the world. gandysinternational.com MOUNTAIN WAREHOUSE Coconut Short Sleeved Womens Shirt £33 Another great lightweight option, but this time particularly with travelling in mind. This short-sleeved cotton shirt from Mountain Warehouse (which at the time of writing could be found online for under £10) has a security pocket at the chest for hiding away…

VIEWFINDER The Salt Path In 1978 the South West Coast Path became our longest national trail: 630 miles of cliffs, coves and golden beaches from Minehead to Poole Harbour, along the shore of Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Devon again, and Dorset. 40 years later it hit bestseller status with the publication of Raynor Winn's The Salt Path, a poignant memoir of how she and her husband Moth turned to the trail after his diagnosis with a terminal illness, and the loss of their home. This spring sees their story arrive on the big screen, with a film adaptation starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. ‘Maybe we should just follow a line around the coast,’ says Anderson's Raynor. ‘We just walk.’ Directed by Marianne Elliott – winner of numerous awards for theatre…

Snickers bar Advice on packing for a long-distance walk is to cut as much weight as possible: maybe even hack the handle off your toothbrush. But this is 48g I can't go without. When the moment comes (and it will) that I'm slogging along wondering how in heck this ever seemed like a good idea, then scarfing a Snickers unfailingly puts energy back in my legs and joy back in my heart. I've tried other sweets of course, but there's a special marathon-fuelling alchemy to this nougat, caramel, peanut, chocolate combo. Also available in a 83.4g Duo, and out on the trail there's nobody to see if you share. 85p, widely available. Jenny Walters, Dep. Head of Content…

BEFORE SHE TURNED 50, Jacquetta Megarry had never done a long walk. But that year, she and three of her friends thought they would try something none of them had done before – walk the West Highland Way. She loved the experience, but wasn't quite so smitten with the guidebook. “It was an engrossing week – we had great fun,” she recalls. “But we found the official guidebook unusable in real weather. It turned to pulp in the rain, and the map either blew away or acted like a sail in the wind.” The foundations for a new career had been laid, and her destiny was sealed on a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro 18 months later. “There was something about feeling ‘I can do this’ that turned what was latent…

Staying at Tresco's luxurious New Inn, with its recently-renovated rooms and nearby spa. Comes with free entry to the Abbey Garden (tresco.co.uk/staying/the-new-inn). Looking for a walk on St Mary's? Head for Lower Moors nature reserve, less than a mile from Hugh Town, and circle back via Old Town Bay and craggy Peninnis Head (pictured). For such a tiny island, Bryher has quite a choice of places to eat and drink. You can have fresh seafood at Island Fish café (islandfish.co.uk/our-cafe) or a pint by the beach at the Fraggle Rock bar (bryher.co/fragglerock-bar-cafe). One way to reach the islands is by train to Penzance and then by boat, on board the Scillonian III, for an unusual view of the Cornish coast and the chance to spot seals and dolphins (islesofscillytravel.co.uk). On Bryher,…

Take part in one of this month's new minichallenges and you're in with a chance of nabbing one of these glittering badgers. The deadline for these is 1st May. Good luck! Literally priceless! 16 CLIMB A TUMP That's a hill with a prominence of at least 30 metres (Thirty and Upwards Metre Prominence) and there are 17,044 around Britain – see hill-bagging.co.uk/hill-list/the-tumps 17 GIVE US A SIGN Share the best signs you see on your walks – could be a lichened fingerpost, a gorgeous trail waymarker, or a curious warning like this (and let us know what you think this sign is telling us not to do). 18 DO A CAKE WALK! Help us find the best bakery and teashop walks in Britain, with photos of the most mouthwatering goodies. Bonus points for…

KRAYS, KEMPS, GIBBS. Romulus and Remus. Dr Chris and Dr Xand. Just some of the twins whose stories, legends, skills or, erm, attractiveness obsess us a little. The National Trails have a twin duo too, sort of. The North Downs Way and South Downs Way run on virtually parallel lines across southeast England, with their chalk-thrust downland landscapes and sublime villages making them near-mirrors of each other. (Coincidentally they are also two of only three National Trails to offer a loop/choice of routes, the third being the Pennine Bridleway.) So how to decide which of them might suit you best? Simple – a tribute to one of the world's bestloved card games. Let's play… Yomp Cards. THE NORTH DOWNS WAY • Length 153 miles/246km • End points Farnham & Dover…

MOUNTAIN WAREHOUSE Teddy Kids Half-Zip Fleece £25 “This is my best jumper in the world!” says Elis about this fluffy top. “It's the cosiest,” he adds when we ask him to elaborate. He's not someone who dishes out praise lightly, so this compliment should not be ignored. We can see why he loves it so much. It keeps him warm even on chilly days and makes an excellent mid layer in the depths of winter. It has elasticated cuffs and hem, which help to keep the cool air out, and the collar zips right up to the chin. The quarter-length zip allows him to get a bit of air flow, if necessary, but this is a jersey best suited to chilly weather. The aptly-named Teddy washes well and dries quickly…

ARE YOU EXCITED YET? As much as we extol the virtues of walking in winter (and we do so with a genuine and fervent love of our cold season), by March and April most of us are more than ready to put our hats, gloves and heated underpants away for a while. And we're almost there. Already we can feel the winds of change – the sun reminding us that life in just a T-shirt is actually a thing, birds doing funny dances for each other, daisies and dandelions convincing themselves that it's finally safe to come out now. For we walkers, the warm season is magnificent – more daylight than we know what to do with; less rain (allegedly); a thousand smells (most of them pleasant); and the chance…

If you trace the green diamonds of the Cotswold Way National Trail across the map – a bucolic 102-mile route from Bath to Chipping Campden – you may recognise the name below from Harry Potter: specifically, his awful Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. ‘The surname ‘Dursley’ was taken from the eponymous town in Gloucestershire,’ JK Rowling explained in 2015, ‘which is not very far from where I was born. I have never visited Dursley, and I expect that it is full of charming people. It was the sound of the word that appealed, rather than any association with the place.’ We'll just have to wait and see if the namesake town has any role in the upcoming TV adaptation.…

If you could go for a walk with anyone, dead or alive, real or fictional, who might it be and why? I'd invite John Muir to walk the John Muir Way with me, eastward across central Scotland from Helensburgh to Dunbar, his birthplace. I would quiz him about everything that has changed since he left Dunbar in February 1849, and also discuss what hasn't changed. Is there a particular place where all seems right with the world? Clachan an Diridh, the 3600-year-old stone circle near mile 77 of the Rob Roy Way. It stands in Fonab Forest before the final descent to Pitlochry and I always visit it to experience its magical atmosphere. And what's the best walking snack? Terribly mundane, I'm afraid – I take cheese and an apple.…

2.74 x 365 = walk1000miles.co.uk ‘To honour my mum’ ‘It's to help my mental health, particularly through my grief journey, as my mum died in December. She walked all her life, her parents met through a walking club, and she met my dad through one. It feels like a way to honour her memory.’ Helen Percy ‘It makes me happy’ ‘I walk to keep me happy – walking is really good for my mental health. If I don't walk, I am totally and utterly miserable!’ Louise Lester ‘To look after myself’ ‘I have taken part every year since 2018 and this year I aim to look after myself better. I'm good at taking care of others, but not always good at taking care of myself. So this is part of…

UNLESS CHANNEL 5 come calling (one always lives in hope of a Michael Portillo-style late career diversion into pucetrousered TV travelogues), I don't suppose I'm going to do the Pennine Way any day soon. Elsewhere in this issue you can read all about our best-known National Trail (with apologies to all the others featured), but I'm not going to be making the trek from Edale to Kirk Yetholm in the near future, I imagine. Not because I don't fancy it, but because finding the time and drive to take two weeks out of my schedule right now seems unlikely. But I can say, as I can of the Cotswolds Way, the Salford Trail and countless other long-distance trails, that I have done ‘bits’. It has taken some extensive research, though…

AS ANY PARENT will no doubt be aware, there are two modes that children have when they're out on a walk. Mode A is absolute joy, which is infectious, and can involve leaping around like a deranged bull, sword fighting with sticks, gawping at caterpillars or simply chattering about whatever is on their mind. Mode B, of course, is whinge mode, which can mean incessant moaning, refusal to move, or clinging to a table leg when you're trying to leave the house. (There probably is a third mode – one where they're mildly content or not bothered either way, but this is rare enough for us to discount it altogether.) As parents (or grandparents, babysitters, etc) we try to maximise Mode A and minimise Mode B, which isn't always easy.…

THE MASTERCLASS ARTILECT Exposure Tee Baselayers perform an important job at all times of the year. For three seasons they work with other layers to keep you snug and warm without getting too sweaty. Come summer, they're normally doing all the hard work themselves. The wrong baselayer can make walking in the heat a miserable affair – sticky, wet, itchy, and one where everyone in the post-walk pub can smell you before they see you. But excellent fabrics and technology are out there to make your summer jaunts are an airy, odour-free pleasure. The Exposure Tee is one of many products that ticks the right boxes. MOISTURE WICKING One of the key features of a summer baselayer is that it should wick moisture, which means to transfer sweat away from…