Where to find easy hiking trails in the United Kingdom
Wales and Brittany have more in common than bad weather: both regions were once run as independent countries and then gobbled up by stronger neighbours (England and France, respectively). This happened almost a thousand years ago, but both Wales and Brittany are still sitting a little awkwardly in the countries to which they have belonged…
Traffic signs, street lights, bus stop shelters: street furniture is part of our lives, and we rarely ever give it a second thought. The pieces are one-dimensional: they have a specific job to do, and no other consideration – least of all aesthetics – seems to matter. In fact, however, street furniture is a lot…
What makes a great urban walk? First of all, it almost goes without saying, an urban walk should combine natural beauty with some urban rough. All cities are beautiful, says the American poet Christopher Morley, but their beauty is grim, and urban walks should provide an introduction into this grim beauty. But this is…
There cannot be many major rivers in the world that have a proper hiking trail attached to them all the way through, from the source to the spot where they join the sea. The Thames, Britain’s most famous river, is lined by such as a “source-to-sea” footpath – which, with a total length of well…
Let’s say you have spent a few days in Edinburgh, seen everything that you wanted to see and find that you have a day to spare – and, rather than going to a museum or walking up and down the same city streets again, feel like venturing out of town for a day trip: what…
I know it may hard to believe for dedicated easy hikers, but thousands of visitors pass through Edinburgh every year without setting foot on either the Water of Leith Walkway or Arthur’s Seat, preferring to spend their days in and around the Old Town and its neighbouring districts. They surely are missing something, but so…
Most cities in the world were founded near a body of water, and for most old cities, this body of water was a river that provided fresh water, a transport connection to the wider world and a handy sewage disposal system. Edinburgh ticks the latter of these boxes, but having said that, it is equally…
This week and next, we shall go on two classic Edinburgh walks, both of which offer you a unique experience. The first one resembles a Robert Burns poem: unpolished and a bit rough, full of drama and life, while the second is flowing and melodious like a Sir Walter Scott novel, featuring great set pieces…
For a daytrip outside Bristol, we recommend a hike around the Clifton Suspension Bridge, easy-to-reach via city bus line no. 8, … … or an urban walk through Bath, one of Britain’s foremost tourist attractions and the only place on earth that has been listed twice as a UNESCO World Heritage Site: once in its…
For centuries, Bristol and Liverpool were the two main hubs of Britain’s highly lucrative Atlantic trade, but when this trade collapsed after the end of WWII (mainly because Britain lost its empire of colonies), the tales of these two cities took sharply different turns. Liverpool entered a steep decline, losing nearly half of its population…