Britain's Finest Literature Inspired Walks

Some of the best walks in Britain explore the parts of the country that inspired cultural icons such as Shakespeare and Dickens. Many great writers, composers and thinkers included a walk in their daily schedule and believed it was instrumental for releasing their creativity and allowing them to produce their incredible works. Tchaikovsky apparently refused to ever cut short his daily walk by even a few minutes, thinking that any less than his usual two hours would result in some kind of misfortune.

Charles Dickens was a prodigious walker and famously walked from his home in central London to the family home in Kent in one night, covering thirty miles. The Thames Path takes you on a gentler walk from the bucolic fields of Oxford (where it’s easy to imagine characters from Wind in the Willows taking a picnic) to the bustle and excitement of England’s capital city where you can see many of the same sights that both soothed and excited Dickens.

There are further literature inspired walks to be had in Somerset explores the area Coleridge and Wordsworth lived and walked in during the early part of the 19th Century. The Coleridge Way passes through the peaceful landscape of Somerset, from the Quantocks, England’s first ever Area Of Natural Beauty, through the Brendon Hills and into Exmoor National Park. Selected by The Times as one of Britain’s best autumn walks this starts at Coleridge’s cottage where in three years he wrote all his most famous works. Passing Wordsworth’s lovely house on the way, this walk takes you through woodland, farmland, deep combs, high moorland heath, and secluded villages with ancient pubs.

The Dales Way in the Lake District takes in the area that inspired many poets of the early 19th Century, including Wordsworth. Dove Cottage of the inspirational daffodil gardens can be found here as can John Ruskin’s grave in a quiet village graveyard. The scenery in the area also inspired Beatrix Potter who loved to take her holidays in Sawrey near Lake Windermere. When she came into some money in 1905 she bought a traditional farm in Sawrey and many of her famous children’s stories were written around here.

Further North, by walking the Border Abbeys Way you can explore the setting for scenes in many of Walter Scott’s novels and poems written at the turn of the 19th Century. As well as 12th Century Abbeys and charming market towns, the walk includes a visit to Abbotsford, the delightful ‘Conundrum Castle’ built by Sir Walter Scott on the banks of the River Tweed.

Britain has a rich literary heritage and there are many more walks that take in the sights that inspire authors or indeed the settings of their finished works but hopefully that was an intriguing introduction to some of the literature inspired walking holidays that we offer.