Lifelong walker, and former director general of the National Trust, Fiona Reynolds selects 12 exhilarating experiences that have personal meaning for her, from mountains to cities and coasts to river valleys.
A beach to die for
Distance 8-mile round trip, from Blairmore
This is an homage to my father, who loved the place. Sandwood Bay is almost at the tip of Scotland’s mainland, just south of Cape Wrath in Sutherland. We start in Blairmore, following an easy four-mile track through a remote and seemingly empty landscape, beckoned forward by the sight and sound of the distant sea. As we approach the bay, the half-moon curve of a vast sandy beach emerges, punctuated by the astonishing vertical sea stack Am Buachaille.
We can’t resist a swim, from which we emerge with teeth chattering, yet exhilarated. The long walk back warms us up and we return over-stimulated, drunk on Scotland’s crystal-clear air and deeply satisfied.
Highlight The remoteness
Downside The long walk in
Two Yorkshire miracles
Distance 6 miles, from Brimham Rocks to Studley Royal
Forgive the hint of National Trust bias, but here are two irresistible North Yorkshire sites, linked by a splendid walk that locks them together. I start at Brimham Rocks, with their spooky, captivating, wind-sculpted shapes. I have childhood memories of scrambling among them, lost in an imaginary world.
The ruins of the Cistercian monastery at Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. Credit: Getty Images
My footpath runs downhill to the River Skell before proceeding to the remains of the 12th-century Cistercian Fountains Abbey. I’m thrilled to see a kingfisher dart across the river as I enter, first, the historic abbey grounds, then the spectacular designed landscape of Studley Royal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s the sublime to the sublime, two contrasting landscapes within a short walk.
Highlight An aesthetic overload
Downside It ends too soon
A long Welsh ridge
Distance 13 miles, from Cwm Bychan car park to Barmouth
I’m often in Eryri (Snowdonia), so you might expect me to pick (and I nearly did) the much-loved Glyderau. Instead, I am choosing the remote Barmouth Ridge, from the top of the Roman Steps (start walking at Cwm Bychan car park), climbing over Rhinog Fawr, Rhinog Fach and Diffwys before a long descent to Barmouth on the coast.
This is some of the hardest walking in Wales. In fine weather, there are spectacular views over Cardigan Bay and the Mawddach estuary, crossed by a railway bridge and the occasional lonely train, with miles of sand and sparkling sea. I spent many childhood holidays at Llandanwg, near Harlech, and my heart bursts with happy memories as I view this beautiful coastline from far above.
Highlight Solitude
Downside It’s a long slog
Writers’ heaven
Distance 13 miles, from Tintern Abbey to Symonds Yat
What a contrast: from the open heights of the Rhinog range to the deep, sultry valley of the River Wye, full of mystery and history. There are so many paths, but the most impressive stretch is north from Tintern Abbey via Redbrook and Staunton to Symonds Yat in Herefordshire, from where there’s a spectacular view of the almost circular meander of the river.
The River Wye at Symonds Yat. Credit: Getty Images
William Gilpin’s Observations, written in 1782, established the Wye as a place of incomparable beauty; his work was followed closely by Wordsworth’s moving Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey (1798). Today, unfortunately, the Wye conjures up images of pollution, chicken sheds and a dying river. Walking along it, there are worrying signs of algal blooms, but the spirit of the place is alive and efforts have begun to bring the river back to health.
Highlight Spectacular scenery
Downside The pollution
Ferry me across the border
Distance 3½-mile circuit, from Picklecombe
Cornwall is a county with hundreds of gorgeous walks. This one, which starts just inside the county border, is special: it has paths and ferries, unspoilt villages and civic pride. It begins at Fort Picklecombe, from where you walk to Kingsand/Cawsand, two intertwined villages that once spanned the southern Devon-Cornwall border. They ooze charm: steep narrow streets, jauntily painted cottages and, on my last visit, a craft fair in the clock-towered village hall.
Catch the ferry to Plymouth’s Barbican, full of life and energy and a perfect place for lunch. Another ferry takes you to Royal William Yard, where the elegant, early-19th-century stone naval buildings, once a victualling yard, are also abuzz. Then take the ferry to Cremyll and walk to Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, followed by a stroll along the South West Coast Path back to Picklecombe.
Highlight A mixture of coastal, countryside and urban life
Downside Missing the ferry
Rus in urbe
Distance 12¾-mile circuit of Edinburgh
I must include a city walk and this is one of the best, as elegant Edinburgh is blessed with superb countryside to its very edge. Arthur’s Seat is visible from everywhere, soaring above the city, and an irresistible climb in the early morning before the crowds gather.
The view from Calton Hill in Edinburgh. Credit: Getty Images
The hidden delight of this walk is to descend from Arthur’s Seat to Holyrood Castle and pick up the Water of Leith, a popular river path from the coast at Leith to Balerno. Walk inland, past the art gallery and Murrayfield stadium, returning to the city centre via the Union Canal. It’s a walk that embraces the best of the city from its green lungs.
Highlight Antony Gormley’s river sculptures
Downside Arthur’s Seat can be harder work than it looks
Atmospheric Exmoor
Distance 10½ miles, from Countisbury to Oare
I like remote, I like history and I like atmosphere. Where better to experience them than Exmoor, a place of moorland mystery and legend? I’ve been re-reading the classics and R. D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone is as magical a story today as when it was published 155 years ago.
Walk first along the dramatic coast, waves crashing below, from Countisbury to Glenthorne, then as far inland as you have time for, through Badgworthy Wood and beyond into the Exmoor Forest. Here, you are tracing the marauding footsteps of the wild Doone clan, from whom the hero, John Ridd, steals the beautiful Lorna. Finish at Oare Church, where Lorna, about to marry Ridd, is dramatically shot (spoiler alert: not fatally). This is a walk full of character and folk memory.
Highlight The speaking landscape
Downside The 21st-century encroaching
In search of Octavia
Distance 2½-mile circuit, from Chartwell to Crockham Hill
To the gentle South, in Kent, in search of my heroine Octavia Hill, a passionate advocate for beauty for everyone. As a young woman, she campaigned for ‘open-air sitting rooms for the poor’ and saved many of London’s green spaces. Later, she joined with others to set up the National Trust.
Flowers bloom at Crockham Hill in Kent, saved for the nation by Octavia Hill and the National Trust. Credit: Alamy
She died in 1912 and is buried in Crockham Hill churchyard near her cottage. All around is countryside she purchased for the Trust to save it from development — there were no green belts or planning control in her lifetime. My walk is a circuit from Chartwell — once Churchill’s home, now owned by the Trust — through the gentle lanes and footpaths Hill would have known, admiring her determination and success in saving such places for everyone to enjoy.
Upside An easy walk in gentle countryside
Downside I would have loved to have been able to talk to her
Marching with the Romans
Distance 17 miles — or anywhere in between — from Thirlwell Castle to Chesters Fort
Hadrians Wall near Houseteads Roman Fort, Vercovicium. Credit: Alamy
There’s something deeply satisfying about a coast-to-coast walk and I’d choose Hadrian’s Wall (73 miles in total) every time. Where else can you cross England at the same time as absorbing the legacy of Roman Britain amid extraordinary scenery? I’m reluctant to suggest it can be shortened, but it can: the best bit is the centre stretch from Thirlwell Castle to Chesters Fort, along the spectacular Whin Sill. The most poignant part is where the famous Sycamore Gap is no longer filled by its splendid tree. I last saw it a month before it was felled and I mourn its loss.
Upside Walking with Roman ghosts
Downside The lost sycamore
Spooning over spoonbills
Distance 6½ miles, from Burnham Overy to Wells-next-the-Sea
This is a proper ‘wildlife wow’, an irresistible walk along the north Norfolk coast with a chance of seeing spoonbills — curious crane-like birds with long necks and spoon-like bills. They didn’t breed here for 300 years, but with efforts led by the Holkham estate to restore wildlife along the coast, they are now arriving in droves; seeing them grazing the coastal marshes is nothing short of spectacular.
My guide, Jake Fiennes, the head of conservation at Holkham, is softer-footed and sharper-eyed than I am, so I see more with him than I ever would have done alone: he shows me where natterjack toads breed, terns nest and orchids bloom. The coastal path from Burnham Overy to Wells-next-the-Sea is particularly special.
Highlight The birds
Downside Avoiding the deep dykes
In ancient times
Distance 7-mile circuit, from Wimborne Minster
The Iron Age hill fort Badbury Rings in Dorset is at the heart of an ancient landscape littered with Bronze Age burial mounds and criss-crossed by Roman roads. As I walk from the outskirts of Wimborne Minster along the Hardy Way and through King Down, I’m captivated by the way the landscape reveals multiple layers of human occupation.
Bradbury Rings in Dorset. Credit: Getty
The Rings, with their wooded heart, retain their dramatic deep ditches, today a playground for families and still a vantage point above the River Stour. I return to Wimborne Minster via the famous beech avenue planted in 1835 by William John Bankes of Kingston Lacy, a staggering reminder of how trees can move the spirit and gladden the heart.
Highlight A rich historic landscape
Downside The busy road running through the avenue
Our industrial past
Distance 6½ miles, from Derby to Kedleston
Richard Arkwright’s cotton mills in the Derwent Valley near Derby offer a different view of history. They were England’s first water-powered factories, turning out world-renowned textiles, making fortunes for their owners and employing thousands of people. Today, this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the mills are mostly converted to new uses. One, John & Thomas Lombe’s silk mill, is now the excellent Museum of Making.
It’s a marvellous walk following the river from the city through Darley Park, recalling the power that drove our Industrial Revolution. A sharp contrast is elegant Kedleston Hall, home to the Curzon family and a walkable distance from the once-clattering mills.
Highlight The industrial architecture
Downside The loss of working mills
Fiona Reynolds is a former director general of the National Trust and now the chair of the Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester. She is also the author of The Fight for Beauty: Our Path to a Better Future
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