Global beat treat
CELEBRATING global sounds, Womad festival will bring together artists, dance and food in leafy surroundings, from July 26-29 at Charlton Park, Wilts. There will be everything from pop and Malian blues to Cuban hip-hop and Jamaican reggae. Expect wellbeing chill-out areas and kid activities galore at the World of Children. See womad.co.uk. GRAB your boots for National Walking Month. We’ve done the leg work and found some of our loveliest long trails.
Reed browser
It runs from its source in the Cotswolds through some of the most densely populated parts of the UK. Yet there are times when the Thames is a place apart, totally peaceful, meandering across meadows through beautiful countryside.
As it widens, its oh-so-pretty villages turn into handsome towns, passing Oxford, Reading, Henley, Marlow and Windsor, with dreaming spires, regal houses and fine pubs. GO SOLO: nationaltrail.co.uk. GET HELP: Try a six-night, 87 mile, Kemble to Pangbourne itinerary from £605, based on two sharing, including B&B and luggage transfers. See thewalkingholidaycompany.co.uk.
Knee trembler
Doing the whole of this path would be a huge undertaking, starting as it does by Poole harbour and lassoing all of Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset round to Minehead.
Expect headlands and beaches, fishing villages and tin mines, foot-ferries and surfer dudes. You never need to look at a map, with the sea always beside you to show you the way. GO SOLO: southwestcoastpath.org.uk. GET HELP: Macsadventure.com does chunks, including the five-night, 40 mile section from St Ives to Penzance from £430, based on two sharing, including B&B and luggage transfers.
Foot patroller
Walk where the Roman guards once stood, looking out over the lands to the north. There’s a real sense of history following the 1,900-yearold pile of stones used by Emperor Hadrian to seal England off from the Scots.
The milecastles that dotted its length have gone and the wall nowhere approaches its original 16ft height but there are still remains of fortresses at Housesteads and Chesters. GO SOLO: nationaltrail.co.uk. GET HELP: Shepherds Walks are the experts, offering self-guided and group departures. The six-night self-guided option starts from £599, including B&B and luggage transfers. See shepherdswalksholidays.co.uk.
Turf strider
This ancient pathway, dotted with Iron Age hill forts, starts in Winchester and follows the northern crest of the chalk slope of the South Downs to the sea at Eastbourne.
It passes through Britain’s newest national park, striding across glossy grasslands rich with orchids and cowslips, and skirting Devil’s Dyke, where Old Nick is supposedly buried. GO SOLO: nationaltrail.co.uk. GET HELP: Mickledore has several options – a nine-night itinerary costs from £834 with B&B and luggage transfers. See mickledore.co.uk.
Park surfer
Devised by writer and fell walker Alfred Wainwright, this popular path runs sea-to-sea across northern England, from Cumbria’s St Bees headland to Yorkshire’s Robin Hood Bay.
En route it passes through three national parks: the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors. It shuns the comfort An adventurous, hill-crossing, forest-busting footpath used by medieval soldiers and cattle drovers, it picks its way across the belly of southern England, cleverly sidestepping towns and cities, on a route that starts near Swindon and ends between Aylesbury and Luton.
Its best bits lie across the Chiltern Hills, particularly where Britain’s oldest road loops