An Introduction to our Walking Holidays in Ireland
Ireland is home to a host of fantastic long distance waymarked trails, and lately a great many of our repeat clients have been asking us if we can operate holidays in Ireland for them. Therefore, we’ve done just that. This week we have launched both the Dingle Way and the Kerry Way. Located on neighbouring peninsulas on the wild Atlantic coast, these are two of the most popular walking holidays in Ireland. Both the western Dingle Peninsula and parts of the Iveragh Peninsula, the setting for the Kerry Way, are designated as Gaeltacht, a place where Irish language is spoken and Irish culture is honoured, notably in dance, song and crafts. This extends to mapping too. Whilst the guidebook we provide has a detailed route description with supporting maps in English, your 1:50k Ordnance Survey Ireland maps will be in Irish. We recommended ahead of your holiday, you make yourself a pot of tea, lay the maps out on your kitchen table, and with guidebook in hand, familiarise yourself with the route. Don’t leave it until the night before! County Kerry in the south west corner of the country is the destination for our first two holidays in Ireland. Both…
Can I Bring My Dog?
Can I bring my dog? is a question we are often asked. For solo walkers, their dogs are their companion, and for couples, their dogs are quite simply part of the family and it wouldn’t feel right to leave them behind. After all, dogs, like people, contribute to making memories that will last a lifetime. Whatever your situation, we have a wide selection of dog friendly holidays on popular routes such as Hadrian’s Wall, a coast to coast journey following the most extensive Roman remains in the world. The Herriot Way, visiting the Yorkshire countryside associated with the much loved vet and author James Herriot. The Cleveland Way, a combination of wild moorland and dramatic coastline, and here in the Lake District we have dog friendly itineraries on the iconic Cumbria Way as well as the Inn Way to the Lake District, a 90 mile circular walk passing no fewer than 40 traditional inns. There’s much to consider when taking your dog on a walking holiday and we’ve tried to cover this on our page Walking With Your Dog, please take a look. You can link through to the various holidays and make your booking online. As always, if you…
Paul Titley tackles five Mickledore holidays in 18 months!
Paul Titley and his wife Dawn are great travellers with our sister company KE Adventure Travel, also based in Keswick. They’ve used the last 18 months to tick off some long-standing UK walking ambitions and already have done five Mickledore trips! Paul, who owns a B&B in Keswick and was formerly the mayor of our town, is a passionate photographer, creating amazing photobooks of his holidays. He meticulously takes a photo every mile of each day’s walking. He’s been kind enough to share these with us and we’re delighted to be able to show you just a few of the highlights. Here’s what Paul has to say about his walking holidays with Mickledore, accompanied by his pictures, of course: “We decided to stick to walking in England and not bother going abroad this year, probably the first time in 10 years we haven’t travelled overseas. Our recent ‘career’ with Mickledore started off fairly locally, walking along Hadrian’s Wall. It was so good, we booked another couple of holidays immediately afterwards. What we like about Mickledore is that the accommodation is always reliably first class – with a previous company we have actually been given a barn! No kidding! We also…
Tales from the Trails – Maggie and the Isle of Wight Coastal Path
Maggie and Jane from Devon recently embarked on their very first Mickledore walking holiday. This was their chance to see if long distance walking holidays were really for them. Would it be a one-off or the way forward? Maggie takes up the story. “This was our first Mickledore holiday. We felt that Isle of Wight Coastal Path would be more of a straight-forward one and thought it would give us a good idea of whether or not we enjoyed it. As a first-timer, it was brilliant. The weather was very kind to us, the only time it rained was overnight. The coastal path is very well signposted with fantastic directions and the way the map is laid out, it’s all so clear. In a number of places the coast has eroded and you are diverted but you can’t lost. To stride out along Tennyson Down was marvellous, one of my favourite days. Our absolute favourite however was on the way to Shanklin where we got crab sandwiches and paddled in the sea. Each day was very different, it’s not at all similar countryside. You get estuaries, the downs, some climbing, the seafront at Cowes, it’s all very different. There was…
Tales from the Trails – Ann tackles our Dales and Moors holiday
Ann Hudson from Cheshire completed our Coast to Coast: Dales and Moors holiday which follows the famous long distance trail 110 miles from Kirkby Stephen to Robin Hoods Bay in May of this year. It was her, and her friend Lesley’s, very first long distance trail. Ann took a lot of fabulous pictures and we’ve included as many as possible in this article. Keep taking the photos, Ann, we loved them and it’s great to share with everyone! Ann on the Coast to Coast, Dales and Moors “This was our very first long distance trail so we thought we’d give ourselves a challenge – we’d highly recommend it. We very much enjoyed it and we’re proud to say we did the whole trail without one blister! I went with my friend Lesley who I worked with years ago – we were both District Nurses until I retired in 2018 and set up a little walking group in Derbyshire where I live. I’d always loved walking when I was working but now I do even more and it’s absolutely fabulous. Lesley’s keen on walking too so a walking holiday seemed a perfect choice. We had originally chosen the West Highland Way…
Tara’s Coast to Coast – Dales and Moors
Part one of my Coast to Coast story covered the Lakes and Mountains stage from St Bees to Kirby Stephen. Here in part two I’ll be sharing my story of the Dales and Moors as I walk on to Robin Hood’s Bay. Day 7: Kirkby Stephen to Keld We started today by ditching a load of our stuff back at our car which we parked in Kirkby Stephen at the start. As the weather has been so good we have hardly worn anything, so all excess gear is now offloaded. I still have full waterproofs and colder weather clothes though, so far it’s worked like a charm for guaranteeing sunshine! Today was Nine Standards Rigg day. I’ve wanted to get up here for ages. The Nine Standards are huge cairns situated at a height of 662 metres that have dominated the skyline for over 500 years. No one really knows their true origins but one theory is that they were constructed by the Romans to look like troops on the horizon. After a period of neglect they have been restored in recent years and they didn’t disappoint. It was so windy up here though it was hard to keep upright…
Tara’s Coast to Coast – Lakes and Mountains
I’m really excited to be walking the Coast to Coast and sharing this with you! A lot has happened since this trip was booked last year and I’m really happy to be back out on the trail and supporting our hard working accommodation hosts and other service providers. Part one of my story features what’s known as the Lakes and Mountains stage of the Coast to Coast. In part two I’ll be sharing my story from the Dales and Moors. Day 1: St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge It is traditional at the start of the Coast to Coast to either dip your boots in the sea or pick up a pebble to carry to Robin Hood’s Bay. Or both. With pebbles selected and boots dipped we made our way up on to the red sandstone cliffs to begin our 190 miles across England. We are walking 14 days, most of them being around 15 miles, the same as today. Although the route heads east, the first few miles head north up the coast and around St Bees Head. After a few miles the trail turns inland using tracks, lanes and many fields, and passing through some small Cumbrian villages with…
Tales from the Trails – Northumberland Coast Path
In the first week of August 2020 regular client Jim Mattinson blazed a trail along the Northumberland Coast Path as our very first walker to hit the trails since March. Jim and his walking companion chose the hardest itinerary, completing the Coast Path in just 4 days of walking. He kindly took the time to tell us what the new normal looked like, and by the sounds of it, it’s almost completely normal! “There’s nothing better than walking in the middle of nowhere. Nothing. And one thing I did notice straight away was that on the footpaths there weren’t many people about at all. We hardly saw anyone when we were walking on the trails although there were plenty of holiday makers enjoying the beaches. That’s one of the things that makes this path so good – there’s some really lovely coastal walking. Cresswell to Amble is very pleasant with some lovely beach walking. Beyond there is Warkworth Castle and after that Alnmouth to Seahouses which is a real favourite. It’s a stretch of coast that we’ve walked before but because it’s so lovely it was no chore to walk it again. In fact, on this occasion, we managed to bag…
Family Time on the North Devon Coast
This article was written by Katie Armitage during her time with Mickledore and reflects her first-hand experience of the route. Last August my sister Bethany and I walked from Minehead to Woolacombe on the first section of the South West Coast Path. We’d just launched our North Devon holidays and I was very excited to share my adventures with you all … let’s dive in! Day 1: Minehead to Porlock We arrived into Minehead late afternoon yesterday which meant we had just enough time for a quick paddle in the sea before dinner in the sunshine! After a delicious breakfast this morning we made our way to the official South West Coastal Path starting point. The trail started fairly flat as we left Minehead along the quiet coast path. We then reached a woodland and began the climb up North Hill. This was quite steep in sections and was rather tough going as it was 27 degrees today! From the top of North Hill we were treated to stunning views across the moorlands of Exmoor and could even see Wales across the water. We came across a group of wild Exmoor ponies grazing on the tops where the trail then…
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!…
Uncovering UK History on Walking Holidays
There is Nothing Like Being There There are some beautiful history books out there, some stunning documentaries and artwork that can evoke a sense of wonder, terror or nostalgia, but there is nothing that exhilarates the history buff quite as vividly as actually setting foot on the places where historical events actually happened. Walking is perhaps the best way to take in historical landscapes and sites because, for most of history, that is the way most people would have experienced them, up close and personal. If you want to ponder the world of Stone Age migrants; imagine what it would have been like to be a Roman soldier from the far south, posted on a cold wall at the Scottish borders; or plod the regular route of a towpath worker along the Thames, the best way to experience it is on foot. Area, or Era? There are a lot of walks based on particular areas of natural beauty, and beautiful scenery is often the main consideration for people choosing where to walk. Many routes have a variety of historical points of interest which span wide-ranging periods of time. The walks that are right for you are best chosen with a…
Bruce’s Big Adventure on Hadrian’s Wall
This article was written by Charlotte Briggs during her time with Mickledore and reflects her first-hand experience of the route. This was my first walk with Mickledore! Living in the Lakes, my husband (Jack), 3-year-old black lab (Bruce), and myself were really excited to walk the trail along Hadrian’s Wall. Bruce (and Jack and myself) are used to the mileage undertaken having lived in the Lakes most our lives. However, we didn’t know what to expect with consecutive days walking … Day 1: Wallsend to Wylam And we’re off As we were in ‘dog friendly’ accommodation, we stayed in Wylam and travelled to Wallsend to start the walk – this differs slightly from the itinerary laid out on the website. What a glorious day for it! (This was surprising considering what was forecast for the week). Arriving at Wallsend we had a brief explore around Segedunum but we didn’t stay long as we were too excited to start our adventure. I know Newcastle fairly well but I found it really interesting to find how the landmarks I already know linked through the trail. As it was a Sunday, there was a market on the quayside which was lovely to explore….