Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Country Walking

1 England's biggest plot of land in 30 years is up for sale And Sir David Attenborough says we should buy it. Northumberland’s Rothbury Estate, an area almost three times the size of Windermere, is a mix of moorland, woodland and farmland, and home to the likes of curlews, red squirrels (pictured), Atlantic salmon and endangered eels. Last year, the Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust were given two years to raise £30 million to buy it. After more a year they’ve raised almost £10 million and are urging more people to help. They say they plan to improve the site’s habitats and help species like beaver, pine marten and golden eagle to recolonise the area. wildlifetrusts.org 2 Researchers have just discovered hell Deep in a cave on the Greece-Albania border…

Fingest, Hambleden & Turville, Buckinghamshire Day 1: 5¾ miles Day 2: 5¼ miles FANCY A WEEKEND in Dibley? And Midsomer? (Hopefully without a murder.) And places you might recognise from films and TV shows as diverse as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Foyle’s War, Little Britain, Nanny McPhee Returns, Jonathan Creek and Killing Eve? This two-day circular trail through the Chilterns will show you why this area has caught many a director’s eye over the years. The villages here – in particular Fingest, Hambleden and Turville – have retained a traditional charm to melt the heart of even the gruffest cynic. And between them lies rolling and heavily wooded countryside that is as much of a draw as the village locations themselves. Starting in Fingest – whose Norman church has a…

Barnes Wallis (see next page) wasn’t the only – or first – technical pioneer to make use of Brean Down. In the spring of 1897, wireless engineer Guglielmo Marconi (above) set up a base of operations at Brean Down Fort. His aim was to prove that radio waves could travel considerable distances across water, and beyond the line of sight. On May 13th, Marconi succeeded in broadcasting a signal to a receiving station at Lavernock Point near Cardiff, some eight miles across the Bristol Channel: the first ever wireless transmission over open sea. This became the proof of concept that generated public interest and funding which enabled Marconi to expand his operations. Eventually this led to the pioneering transatlantic transmissions of the early 20th century – not least those which enabled…

IT’S SURPRISING HOW bad a lot of people are at listening. How often are you talking away when you get the sense that the other person is simply waiting to tell you their own story on the topic? Or that they are silently judging, or itching to ‘explain’ what you should or shouldn’t do? Sharing stories is a beautiful and natural part of human connection, but when times are tough or we are struggling to cope, often the most powerful thing is to just be heard. The good news is, change can start with the smallest of steps. And in the case of Mind Over Mountains, that step is up a hill. Coniston I’m standing in a car park in Coniston village in the heart of the Lake District, slightly…

IN THE HEART of nowhere special, near a town you haven’t heard of, lived a man that wasn’t born there, who wrote a book you won’t have read. (It’s probably fair to assume that those lines won’t make it onto Visit Lincolnshire’s next marketing campaign.) Near the bottom of that huge county is the small town of Bourne. In a nearby village lived Frederic Manning, an Australian who moved to England as a teenager. He fought in the First World War, then went on to write a novel based on his experiences. It’s a work of genius, offering a unique, raw and honest account of what life was truly like for the men who fought at the Somme. Bourne was Manning’s home for most of his life. It’s now also…

PRIZE CROSSWORD DECEMBER ANSWERS NOVEMBER WINNERS Shelia Weller, Suffolk Jon Murphy, Wallasey Gary Wesley, Southampton December issue winners will be published next month. Full terms and conditions can be found at greatcompetitions.co.uk WIN! Win Cicerone guidebooks Three lucky winners will each get to select two guidebooks from Cicerone’s range, which includes The National Trails of England, Scotland and Wales and Walking in Arran. For more details, Tel. 01539 562069 or visit www.cicerone.co.uk EMAIL COMPLETED PUZZLES TO: cwcrossword@bauermedia.co.uk Closing date: 2 January 2026 Bauer Media Group (the publishers of Country Walking) have other great offers and promotions that we think you'll like, but if you'd rather not hear about these offers, please tick this box □ For our privacy policy visit bauerdatapromise.co.uk Bauer Media Group consists of Bauer Consumer Media Ltd, Bauer…

THE MIDDLE OF the Venn diagram between walking and jazz is sparsely populated. But empty, it is not. Rattling around in there is a Scottish jazz pianist named Fergus McCreadie, who has just released his fifth album, recorded in the dead of winter from a tiny cottage on the island of North Uist. Contrary to the standard stereotypes of jazz musicians – lurking in smoky urban clubs and saying ‘smooth’ a lot – Fergus’ albums are a direct reflection of the Scottish landscapes he loves. And walking is at the core of his creative process. Which is why Country Walking felt compelled to meet him for coffee in Glasgow. Walking, Fergus explains, was part of his childhood. He grew up in Dollar, with the Ochil Hills rising almost from his…

THERE’S AN ANIMATED film my kids like to watch at Christmas – it’s called The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. Based on the 2019 book by Charlie Mackesy, it’s essentially a series of kind proverbs threaded into a sweet story about a boy trying to find his home with the help of his fourlegged friends. It’s set in the dead of winter, with watercolour-style illustrations depicting beautiful British countryside covered by thick powder snow. And while my kids are engrossed in the story, I look cynically at the landscape. ‘Where is this meant to be?’, I wonder. ‘No fences or hedges, no deep heather or gorse – just huge, empty fields broken only by the occasional river or copse. And how come it’s nearly always sunny? And…

Boat of Garden to Grantown-on-Spey, Highland Day 1: 6¾ miles Day 2: 6¼ miles IF YOU WANT to feel like you’re in another time and place altogether – especially in the wintertime – the ancient Caledonian Forest of northeast Scotland is the place to do it. Things are different here. Rather than oaks and beech trees, we find acre upon acre of Scots pines, interspersed with juniper, rowan and blaeberry. It’s the kingdom of red squirrels, crested tits and crossbills. Loch Garten will be alive with winter species like redwings, fieldfares, and greylag and pink-footed geese. And if you’re very lucky you might even catch a glimpse of a capercaillie or a golden eagle. What better way to explore this world in winter than a two-day trail? Our suggestion starts…

A RDNAMURCHAN IS A PENINSULA. But it feels like an island; sometimes you even get the sense that it wants to be one. It very nearly is. Look at it on a map and you’ll see that it dangles out into the Sea of the Hebrides like the nose of Pinocchio, anchored to the mainland only at its eastern root. It is in fact the westernmost point of the British mainland – further to the ‘left’ than anywhere in Wales or Cornwall, despite appearances on a map. Also like an island, it’s an endeavour just to get here. Most visitors will reach Ardnamurchan by taking the Corran Ferry across Loch Linnhe then following narrowing roads through Ardgour and beside Loch Sunart. People refer to being ‘on’ Ardnamurchan, rather than ‘in’…

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 THE RAILWAY CHILDREN WALK, Route 18, August 2021 On a short break in Yorkshire we really enjoyed this walk. We had spent the previous day at Oxenhope station watching an amazing production of The Railway Children. The theatre was a converted engine shed and the star of the show was undoubtedly the steam engine. A lovely easy to follow walk – look out for the stone paintings in the dry stone wall just before Oakworth station. Lynne & Rob Nash, Dorset TOBERMORY LIGHTHOUSE, Route 25, July 2025 We have been holidaying on the beautiful Isle of Mull for the best part of a decade and have never done this…

It’s one of the great experiences of the great outdoors – to stand above a sea of cloud with just the tops of hills poking out of the vapour ocean beneath you like islands. All you can see is wild – any evidence of human life is hidden beneath the vast woolly blanket. It might not be a common phenomenon, but winter is one of the best times to see a cloud inversion and, as this picture from the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire shows, you don’t have to climb the tallest mountains to see one. But for the best chance, it can pay to get up early. A cloud inversion forms when a layer of cold, moist air becomes trapped beneath a layer of warmer air, and at dawn the…

TARPORLEY IS A gem at the heart of rural west Cheshire – a large, lively village surrounded by rolling green farmland and the gentle rise of the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge. With its handsome high street of independent shops, cosy cafés and traditional pubs, it’s the kind of place where you can happily while away an afternoon after a morning spent exploring the countryside. Walkers are spoilt for choice here. The celebrated Sandstone Trail runs close by, snaking along the ridge between Frodsham and Whitchurch and offering some of the finest elevated walking in the county. From Tarporley, it’s easy to join this long-distance route for a rewarding day’s hike, taking in sweeping views across the Cheshire Plain to the Welsh hills beyond. Our first walk starts from below Beeston Castle,…

WRITE TO US AT: Country Walking, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA EMAIL: editorial@countrywalking.co.uk FACEBOOK: facebook.com/countrywalking X: x.com/countrywalking LETTER OF THE MONTH We walked the Downs for Rick We have subscribed to your magazine for many years but some of your recent editions have been particularly poignant and seem directly aimed at me. My husband (Rick Fowler) completed the Walk1000Miles challenge for years – we’ve got the badges, T-shirts and caps to prove it. Sadly he died this summer after a very short illness. It was particularly cruel because we were only months into retirement and had made plans. One of our aims was to walk the South Downs Way in September. My sister-in-law kindly stepped into his boots, so we walked in his memory. So your recent articles…

Llyn Ogwen to Betws-y-Coed, Gwynedd/Conwy Day 1: 5¾ miles Day 2: 5¾ miles SQUEEZING BETWEEN THE highest peaks in Eryri (Snowdonia) outside the Snowdon massif, this walk passes some of the national park’s most dramatic scenery without the inconvenience of having to climb it. The linear route starts at the Ogwen Cottage visitor centre and follows the Snowdonia Slate Trail eastwards. The paths are mostly easy all the way; the initial section along the north shore of Llyn Ogwen gets bouldery in places, but the views across the water to Tryfan are truly unforgettable. A good track continues south of the A5 with the Glyderau range on the right and the Carneddau mountains on the left. It leads eventually to the small but magnificently-located village of Capel Curig, where you…

THE ENDLESS DUSK. That’s how a friend of mine once described the days of December and January. “Wake up in the dark, feel like it’s dusk by midafternoon, fully dark by 4.30, and 7pm feels more like 10.” His words have stayed with me for several decades. It sounds gloomy; and for many, it is: a cocktail of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and the relentless pressures of the run-up to Christmas is enough to glitch anyone’s joie de vivre. We need light. We miss it. It will come as no surprise at all that I’m about to suggest that the answer is walking. You know it already. You’re quite aware that walking at this time of year becomes more important, not less. Any walk at all is a poke in…

Izzi: “The walk helped me to realise that slowing down is not a weakness. As someone who is constantly on the go, I have often pushed my mental needs aside in favour of physical performance or productivity. But this experience reminded me that my mental health matters just as much. Taking time for yourself, especially in nature and in a setting that feels safe and supportive, is something we all need.” Atheah: “I’d been diagnosed with depression and anxiety and felt really lost. It was helpful to have trained counsellors who asked the right kind of questions. It brought me back to me again, remembering who I used to be and how I used to be able to connect well with people from all walks of life. I’m really grateful…