My good friends at
Atlas Guides
in Flagstaff design and code the "go-to" apps for staying on the trail
while hiking - a challenge for me at times! They worked with the
Trailblazer crew
in Great Britain to develop a series of British hikes that I eagerly
downloaded. I hiked sections of three different trails, while based out
of enchanting cottages with lovely hosts. I deemed it
"reconnaissance" hiking since I only did a few sections of each trail -
but it was great to see different parts of England as well as hike the
unique trails.
First up was the
Cotswold Way.
This trail begins in the most charming town of Chipping Campden - near
the 14th century Woolstaplers Hall (now a museum). For those of you not
up on woolly lingo, a wool-stapler buys wool
from the producer, sorts and grades it, and sells it to
manufacturers. The Cotswolds were a key center of the wool industry and I
never walked a section of the trail that didn't also include sheep. :)
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| The beginning of the Cotswold Way in charming Chipping Campden |
The Cotswold Way also has loads of archeology - including the
Crickley Site that shows occupation as early as 3,700 BC by some of the first
Neolithic people in Britain. Another Neolithic site along the Cotswold Way is the
Belas Knap Long Barrow. Excavations in the 1860's found remains from 38 humans in the four chambers and behind the portal.
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| One of the chambers in the side of the long barrow |
The strangest section of the Cotswold Way goes by the Cleeve Hill
golf course. Cleeve Hill is a large common area - and during the spring
and summer grazing sheep are allowed on the course! I got lost on the course (it all looked the same to me) and thankfully the app brought me back to a nature reserve - a much less homogenous landscape!
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| Grazing sheep on the Cleeve Hill Golf Course |
From the bucolic Cotswolds, we headed to Pembrokeshire. Several of my friends had just walked the full 186-mile
Pembrokeshire Coast Path and raved about it. Though it wasn't yet on the Atlas app, I figured if
I stayed close to the coast, but didn't go over the cliffs, I would be
fine. Each section I did was fantastic and my hubby and I also went out
on a boat trip to an offshore island with PUFFINS! Not to mention diving
GANNETS! Oh, and RAZORBILLS! It was glorious.
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| Wildflowers in May |
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| The trail goes close to the cliff edge in places... |
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Next up was the Lake District where I hoped to hike part of the Wainwright Coast-to-Coast Trail. This 182-mile track, created by British hiker extraordinaire Alfred Wainwright, crosses
three National Parks; the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, and North
York
Moors. It is not well sign-posted so having the Atlas Guides app will likely save you extra hours of hiking. We connected with the trail near Patterdale, but didn't hike very far. The fog limited our visibility to almost zero as we climbed, so we hung out in the lowlands with the sheep. I researched why we see so many painted sheep and got two answers - one is
just identification of your sheep from your neighbors, and the other is
to determine which ewes have mated - the ram is loaded up with a sack of dye and deposits it during mounting so the farmer can tell which ewes have been
impregnated. The things I'm learning...
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| Pink sheep in the Lake District |
My final England hiking goal was the 84-mile Hadrian's Wall Path, steeped in the history of the
Roman Empire's northern boundary. While trail guides tend to start the hike from the east, the app has a slick feature where you can change the direction you are hiking so you don't have to read the guide backwards, no matter where you start or which direction you go.
I first toured the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle, near the west end, to learn more about the Roman history of this area. The museum had an entertaining and educational animated film where I learned that the wall was begun in AD 122 under Emperor Hadrian to separate the Roman Empire from the barbarians (Scots!) to the north. The history is interesting and I'd love to do the entire walk, reading more about the history as I went along. You can't see much of the wall near Carlisle, but it is another charming town, and I enjoyed walking along the river and parks.
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| Communal latrine at Housesteads Roman Fort |
Hubby and I drove to Housesteads Fort,
the best-preserved of the 16 forts along the wall. We toured the fort
and you can see my favorite part above. It is a communal latrine for Roman soldiers. No privacy for them... The poopers were along both sides and the troughs in the middle held water they hopefully used to clean themselves... Then hubby drove me to Cawfields, Castlemile 42, and I hiked along miles of solid wall until I found him at the Twice Brewed Inn in the town of Once Brewed - or something confusing like that!
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| Section of Hadrian's Wall in the mid-country |
All said, I loved the hikes I did in England and want to do more. You can check out all the British hiking apps from Atlas Guides here!
