Saturday Walk - Huntingdon Circular

Length: 24.5 km (15.2 mi) or 18.3 km (11.4 mi)

Ascent/Descent: negligible 

Net Walking Time: ca. 5 hours or ca. 3 ¾ hours 

Toughness: 2 out of 10 or 1 out of 10

Take the 10.16 Thameslink train from St. Pancras (comes from Horsham, travels to Peterborough, calls London Bridge 10.01, Finsbury Park 10.24), arrives Huntingdon at 11.19. 

Return trains: xx.10 and xx.40. 

 

Some of the river meadows are flood-prone, but after the recent dry weather...

 

From the blurb…: 

 

“This easy circular walk leaves the historic town of Huntingdon via a linear park on the north bank of the River Great Ouse. The riverside path on this bank takes you as far as Hartford, where the walk continues along the edge of farmland to an early lunch stop in the attractive twin villages of Houghton and Wyton. At Houghton there is a choice of routes for the central leg of the walk: the original version continued with a straightforward circuit of Houghton Meadow, and this remains the Main Walk. 

The Long Walk replaces this section with an extended loop via the neighbouring villages of Hemingford Abbots and Hemingford Grey to the next town along the river. St Ives has been an important market town since Anglo-Saxon times, when it was the last place where the River Great Ouse could be forded before it reached the sea, 80 km away. The 15^thC town bridge has several unusual features, most notably the survival of its late-medieval Bridge Chapel. The town's Norris Museum (free entry) “tells the story of Huntingdonshire from earliest times to the present day”; it is open daily (except Sundays in winter) until 16.00 hours. Both options return to Houghton where you could visit the last working water mill on the river. Houghton Mill is open with pre-booking; admission was £6 in 2019.

The final leg back to Huntingdon is through a nature reserve and extensive water meadows which are awash with buttercups in spring. The town's old grammar school (where Oliver Cromwell and Samuel Pepys were pupils) now houses the Cromwell Museum (free entry but limited opening hours).On the Long Walk you could visit The Manor Garden in Hemingford Grey, designed and planted by the author Lucy Boston and recreated as Green Knowe in her books for children. It is open 11.00-17.00; admission was £5 in 2020.

On the Main Walk you could save 3½ km by omitting the circuit around Houghton Meadow, or up to 2 km by taking a shorter route through it. 

 Conversely, the Long Walk bypasses this meadow on its return route but you could switch to the full circuit around it, an additional 2 km. 

Towards the end of the walk a couple of short cuts are available if you are in a hurry to catch a train.”

 

Lunch: There are four pubs en route along the long walk, all coming relatively early in the walk, and two of those are also on the short walk. 

Three Jolly Butchers in Wyton, the Three Horseshoes Inn in Houghton; the Axe & Compass in Hemingford Abbots; and the National Pub of the Year 2019, The Cock in Hemingford Grey.

Tea: check the webpage or the walk directions. T=swc.31

For the walk directions, a map, a height profile, gpx/kml files and photos click here.