Walking Guides for National Trails and Paths in England.

Walking in England on our huge and well mapped network of National Trails and Footpaths plus towpath walks along our beautiful Canals.

Below you will find descriptions for a variety of English walks (around 21 of them) which might be of interest if you are on holiday in England or visiting our local area - there are many photographs from around the Chilterns on our pages which might be of interest and wish to go sightseeing (even if you are not a walker).
These walks generally work out around 8 to 12 miles - although there are a couple of heavys described too - and are mostly circular and often incorporate hiking along parts of several National Trails. These Trails include The Ridgeway, The Oxfordshire Way, The Icknield Way and The South Bucks Way as well as parts of the eternally wandering Grim's Ditch - plus along the River Thames and parts of it's 185 miles of Thames Path. There also walks a little further north from where we live - around Market Harborough and Welford which may be of interest too.

The walks visit amongst other places Blenheim Great Park, Woodstock, Thame, Goring, Henley, Islip and Rycote Chapel - and some are partly along The Grand Union Canal towpath and also several walks partially use the The Oxford Canal towpath. By definition these ancient long National Trails simply go from A to B and are pretty much impossible to get lost on. Walking their whole distance involves having transport available at each end and either diverting off to find bed-and-breakfast accommodation or perhaps camping along their routes. An alternative way of walking the Trails is to do it in sections by walking circulars and accumulating parts of the route over a period of time. We have in fact organised our various walks so that you can cover quite reasonable parts of the various trails simply by following the circular walks descriptions.

Walking Gear and Possible Hazards. Everyone has their preference for what to have on their feet when out rambling but certainly some of these walks really do require walking boots or at least wellies rather than simply trainers. For instance the Oxfordshire Way Trail is quite often really wet in places - it just seems to have a remarkable ability in finding underground springs on it's route - so sometimes you can be walking through deep slippery mud patches. It is also of note how quickly the weather can change especially in the winter - we have set out on The Ridgeway Trail in reasonably warm conditions, then ended up being snowed on a few hours later so again taking a bit of appropriate gear is worth while - The Ridgeway is surprisingly isolated in places especially towards the Wiltshire end (Avebury area etc.). Also we usually take a walking pole with us particularly when we expect to be walking across fields where they may be cows and sometimes even bulls grazing. In England public footpaths and Rights of Way are by law not meant to be blocked or obstructed or create any sort of hazard to walkers however young cattle in particular have a habit of running towards you. This is simply because they are inquisitive however 20 or 30 calves racing towards you is a bit of a hazard in that (we know) sometimes they forget they have to actually stop in time - what they do respect and will pay attention too is a stick being waved at them. Remember also that usually very docile cows can become somewhat concerned and even aggressive when they have very young calves with them so give them plenty of room. Obviously dangerous bulls are not allowed to wander freely where public access is permitted however you can come across a bull now and again - the one thing that might just help you should you come across a bull by having a stick or walking pole - bulls know about sticks and respect them (usually).

The instructions for the walks are for guidance although we believe them to be accurate however of course a good Ordnance Survey Explorer map should be carried/utilised as well. We have taken quite a few GPS readings on the way round some of these walks because it's great fun to load a map into the computer and plan a route, load it into the GPS, then when the walk is finished load the actual tracking back into the PC and see the results on the map - particularly the bit where you went wrong on the walk!. GPS is setup on British Grid and to OSGB rather than Latitude/Longitude since our U.K. maps are designed and most easily followed using this setting.
Quite apart from the lovely countryside around the area when walking it is always worth slight diversions to look at the churches in the various villages, some of which are very old. In addition at the appropriate time of year we have the "pre-Spring warning" of snowdrop displays followed by the massive displays of bluebells doing their thing in the woods - for example up at Christmas Common; then there are the fantastic autumn leaf displays for which Wendover Woods is justifiably famous.
As far as wildlife is concerned The Chilterns is full of all sorts to enjoy - particularly we have a thriving population of Red Kites - for instance around Thame it is very unlikely that you will fail to see at least 5 or 6 and quite often many more of these wonderful birds flying around often at tree height. Other locations to spot these Red Kites is around Christmas Common and up at Stokenchurch and if you are happy to go walking then another good place to spot Red Kites is around Stonor Deer Park where in addition you often see hawks and buzzards as well as owls, woodpeckers and many other bird species.

Please visit our Home Page for items about quite a few of our English Canals, Canal Arms and River Navigations, 100s of English Church and Wild Flower Photographs. Visit our Resources topic if you wish to Email Us - also see a notice about our website and our privacy policy.

We have many other countries covered on our travel and holiday guides - please take a look at our Greek Islands and Athens travel and holiday guides which cover around 30 Greek Islands. See our Foxys Travel Guides for topics on touring and holidays in Vietnam, Cambodia, China and Hong Kong, Laos, India, Egypt, Bali, Cyprus, New Zealand, The Algarve, several Canary Islands, Thailand and Singapore.

Good External "Walking Related" Web Resources
www.chilternsaonb.org
Chiltern Experience Risborough Area Community Action (RACA) - Chiltern Experience website
Walking Routes 100s of links to UK web pages which detail 1000s of on-line walking routes, trails, route directions + maps etc
Southern Walks Many walks covering the South of England including using the Test Way, New Forest, South Downs Way etc.
Bestwalks most comprehensive resource on the web for books on walking the Chilterns and the whole of the UK
Goring Gap Health Walks provides useful information about their Health Walking group and the area in which they walk.
Abingdon Walks Walk and Historical Walk Ideas - Abingdon Town, River, Country and Boar's Hill Walks
Towpath Treks - Photo Guide about Walking on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and other canals in England and Wales