Country Walking

Country Walking Magazine shows you the best of British walks: the biggest views, the hidden gems, the sea cliffs and the mountain summits. All our features come complete with superb writing, inspiring photography and step-by-step instructions so you can follow every footpath yourself. In every issue, you’ll find: - In-depth stories of amazing walks - A booklet of 25 pull-out walks every issue - with OS maps! - Information about hotels, pubs, cafes, tearooms. - Clear, jargon-free tests of walking kit And... every issue our readers tell their walking stories, help us devise new walks and shape the places we go to. If you love walking, this is the magazine for you.

Welcome

IN THIS ISSUE…

Find a great walk near you! • Highlights from the 27 fantastic walks in this issue…

On the level

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS MONTH

The Coast to Coast becomes a NATIONAL TRAIL • What will a £5 million upgrade mean for the much-loved hike? Here’s everything we know…

‘The best walk in Britain’ • Reactions to the news from our social media family…

MUCH WENLOCK • Traverse tree-clad hills from a delightful Shropshire town, amidst views that have inspired poetry and music.

Walking: your mind’s amazing medicine • Dementia isn’t an inevitable symptom of ageing – and a daily walk’s the best way to stop it before it starts.

They’re making it up as they go along! • #walk1000miles is the most versatile challenge on the planet – one that can be pimped, augmented or altered as circumstances dictate. Its 2.74 miles a day target is a friendly spur, not a rotating scythe waiting to chop you down. Here’s how some of our members are making the challenge their own…

Meet the golden gang! • Every month we set five new mini-challenges to add spice, interest or silliness to your miles – and each issue reveal the latest winners of a money-can’t-buy golden badge. Join in!

Do more on your miles & win treasure!

Such sweet torture!

Your View

Views in brief

Where’s Kes?

Stuart Maconie • Hark! The lark… or was it the yellowhammer? Here’s why birdsong isn’t always music to my ears.

Matthew Yeomans • A woodland walk on the trail of the Druids and the ‘oak knowledge’ at the heart of their mystique…

Into the Woods • Shade, shelter, stories, smells; colours, creatures, crunch: where would we be without woodland walks? Fifty years ago one man realised we needed only to wait, and do nothing, to find out. There was no way on earth he was doing that.

Autumn: THE SHOW GUIDE • There’ll be one showing only of Autumn 2022! Here’s our bucketlist to make sure you don’t miss a thing of the countryside’s most sensational performance.

‘Lift up your HEARTS’ • Hilaire Belloc’s extraordinary 1912 novel The Four Men is his love letter to Sussex – a cross-county pub crawl, homeward bound over hills and high woods in autumn. Sounded like our kind of walk…

A hike for HALLOWEEN • We went in search of a haunted bothy beneath a cursed lake, high in the Carneddau hills. It did not disappoint.

TWO OTHER BOTHIES TO SCARE YOURSELF SILLY…

A MIGHTY MAZE OF MYSTIC, MAGIC RAYS • As the BBC celebrates its centenary, Country Walking says happy birthday with a walk to the birthplace of broadcast TV.

BBC BIMBLES • Five more walks on the trail of BBC heritage.

ON LOCATION • Walk to sights and scenes made famous in BBC gems from down the years…

IN SEARCH OF True North • Eight counties, one guitar: meet the musician who’s building an album of songs from the summits, one walk at a time.

The strange story of Gragareth

The summits and their songs • True North is a work in progress so some of the songs aren’t settled yet, but here’s what Johnny...