Clare Balding’s top 5 rambles around Britain
The broadcaster shares her favourite places to go walking with Alice Hearing.
What do you take with you on a ramble through the British countryside? A map? Yes. Water? Yes. Fudge? Definitely. And the address of a decent pub.
These are the key items for your backpack according to Clare Balding, who presents Radio 4’s Ramblings and even named her autobiography Walking Home: My Family And Other Rambles.
“I’d make sure there was a pub halfway to stop for lunch – I’m not an idiot!” she adds.
Clare’s perfect walk would be six to seven miles – “long enough that you feel like you’ve covered some distance, but not so far that you’ve got blisters and you never want to put one foot in front of the other again” – with stable terrain, open fields and good company.
Despite her busy career, Clare has managed to find the time for walking in her day-to-day life, and often takes her dog Archie.
She revels in both the physical and psychological effects.
“I think the mental escape and the mental health benefits of walking, to me, are as important as the physical benefits, and that’s why I need to walk every day.”
But, of course, nothing makes a ramble quite like the landscape itself. Here are Clare’s top five rambling destinations…
1. Northumberland
“The northeast coastal path, whether you do St. Oswald’s Way or St. Cuthbert’s Way,” recommends Clare. “Northumberland is the most undiscovered, incredible landscape this country has to offer – and you’ve got all those fantastic castles as well.
“I do like learning about an area, what might have happened there and who might have trodden that path before you”.
2. The Nidderdale Way, Yorkshire Dales
“Do the Nidderdale Way, which is sort of like a figure of eight. You can base yourself in Pateley Bridge and come back to it every night.
“The Nidderdale Way is so different, as you get deeper into the Dales, the farmland changes and therefore the buildings change. You’re following the river Nid, which I like as a name, and there are some really nice B&Bs to stay at.”
Sustenance is important too. Clare says: “There’s the oldest sweet shop in the world in Pateley Bridge so you can take fudge with you, which will keep you going every mile, then just bring a whole load back home again. It’s the best fudge recipe I have ever tasted and I am a fudge connoisseur.”
3. North Cornwall
“If you go walking in Cornwall, head north – it has a more rugged coastline, waves crashing in, disused tin mines, the odd sudden ruin, lots of lighthouses. There are lots of little loopy walks you can do. Constantine Bay is lovely, and the seal spotting is good as well.”
4. Aberdeenshire
“Aberdeenshire in Scotland has a beautiful, lovely landscape, big open views with no buildings and big farmland – it’s very fertile and lovely. And you get the hills and mountains too.”
5. The Pennines
“You can do as long a walk as you like because obviously, the Pennine Way would take you for 100 miles if you wanted to do all of it. It has really steep climbing and that feeling of getting out and getting remote quickly.”
The Racehorse Who Disappeared by Clare Balding is published by Puffin, priced £10.99. Available now.
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