Gill Atkinson
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A walk through James Herriot’s Yorkshire Dales
This year I chose the Herriot Way for my Mickledore staff fam trip. One of the main reasons for this decision was that although the Yorkshire Dales are really not very far away from home, I’m ashamed to say that it’s an area that I just don’t know, so I was looking forward to getting out to explore a totally new area. I opted for our shortest itinerary HE5, consisting of 5 nights with 4 days walking, starting and finishing in Aysgarth with an even spread of approximately 13 miles per day. I quite like circular routes starting and finishing in the same location, as it makes life very easy with regard to transport. We were driving over to the Dales and the circular route meant we could park our car at the start then walk straight back to it at the end. So we arrived at the Aysgarth Falls Hotel early evening where they’d very kindly agreed we could park our car with them for the duration of our walk. After a quick freshen up we headed down for a relaxed drink in the bar prior to dinner. Luckily for us Sunday roast was available on the evening menu,…
Quality time in the Cotswold countryside
Last September I was delighted to be given the opportunity to walk the Cotswold Round as my Mickledore familiarisation trip. Living in the Lake District I’m certainly very lucky to be able to run and walk in our beautiful mountains, but I was very happy to have the opportunity to head south to experience some very different terrain, scenery (and hopefully a little bit of sunshine too)! Having only visited the Cotswolds once (and on that occasion only really passed through), I was keen to spend some quality time in the lovely Cotswold countryside and to see a few of its beautiful, picturesque towns and villages. Due to time constraints, I’d chosen the shortest itinerary on our Moreton-in-Marsh circuit which is a circular walk of approximately 45 miles starting and finishing, as the name suggests, in the market town of Moreton-in-Marsh. On this itinerary the daily mileages are somewhere between 9 and 13 miles, which would be perfect for us and would allow us a bit of spare time each day to explore the charming villages without feeling the need to rush. After a lengthy drive down from Cumbria we arrived in Moreton on a quiet Sunday afternoon. We checked…
Striding Out on St Oswald’s Way
At the end of September I had the opportunity to get out on my first staff familiarisation trip. I chose St Oswald’s Way. I was joined by my husband Stan, and we simply loved every minute of it. We are lucky enough to live in the Lake District and love walking on the fells, but we so enjoyed walking a different landscape along the beautiful and unspoiled Northumberland Coastline. We chose St Oswald’s Way but, due to time limitation, opted for the Coastal Highlights short break itinerary of 4 days walking (5 nights) as far as Warkworth, which suited our timescale perfectly. If we’d had more time we would definitely have opted to do the full route and maybe we’ll get chance in the future, so that we can say we have followed in the footsteps of St Oswald, King of Northumberland in the 7th Century, and who played a major part in bringing Christianity to the region. After an initial section inland between Lindisfarne and Belford, the path followed the stunning Northumberland coastline down to Warkworth and was an easy, enjoyable mixture of lovely woodland paths, open farmland, sand dunes and beaches, dotted with several castles along the way!…