Category Archives: AONB

May Day morning on Lodge Hill

Posted on 02/05/2024 by campaignerkate

I chose May Day morning, this year for my annual visit to the corn buntings, it seems right to do something special on that day. I look for corn buntings around Lodge Hill, near Princes Risborough in the Chilterns. I … Continue reading →

Posted in AONB, Birds, Bucks, Chilterns | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A people’s charter 75 years on

Posted on 31/03/2024 by campaignerkate

Seventy-five years ago today, 31 March 1949, Lewis Silkin, then minister of town and country planning, spoke of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Bill as ‘a people’s charter’. This was the second reading of the bill, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, AONB, campaigns, Countryside Council for Wales, Dartmoor, National parks, National trail, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Open country, parliament, planning, Public paths, walking, wild country | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Launch of the River Coln Trail

Posted on 30/03/2024 by campaignerkate

I was in Fairford, Gloucestershire, on 23 March to open the River Coln Trail. This 33-mile route links the Walkers are Welcome Towns of Winchcombe in the north and Fairford in the south. It takes in the source of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, AONB, Cotswolds, Obstructed path, Public paths, Ramblers, Walkers Are Welcome Towns, walking, walks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Radical Ramblers and parachuting pipits

Posted on 10/03/2024 by campaignerkate

I joined my first walk of the Radical Ramblers since the tragic and untimely death of our leader, Alan Haworth, last August. Roger Hough has generously stepped in to keep the walks programme going. On 9 March eight of us … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, AONB, Birds, Chilterns, National trail, Radical Ramblers, walking, walks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

John Elfes, campaigner for access

Posted on 21/01/2024 by campaignerkate

When we wander over Buckinghamshire’s access land we should remember John Elfes with gratitude.  John, who died last October aged 88, was the access officer for the Ramblers Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and West Middlesex Area for 18 years, from 2002 … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, AONB, Bucks, Chilterns, Obstructed path, Open country, Public paths, Ramblers, Ramblers' path-check, Turville, walking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Bimble round Northleach

Posted on 06/01/2024 by campaignerkate

My final walk of 2023 with my friends Arthur Lee and visually-impaired Marika Kovacs was on 29 December from Northleach in Gloucestershire. It is more or less equidistant between us (Hereford and Turville). We chose a simple circular walk because it … Continue reading →

Posted in AONB, Birds, Cotswolds, Obstructed path, Public paths, walking, walks | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Dead end at Wormsley

Posted on 27/12/2023 by campaignerkate

Visitors to the magnificent Wormsley valley, on the Buckinghamshire-Oxfordshire border, will be surprised, if not annoyed, to find that an important bridleway has been ‘temporarily’ closed. This is a popular spot for walkers, riders, and cyclists because it is a secluded … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, AONB, Bucks, Chilterns, Public paths, riding, Turville, walking | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Poulenc in the hills

Posted on 16/11/2023 by campaignerkate

On a glorious November day, I walked with my visually-impaired friend Marika Kovacs, supported by Arthur Lee who met us in the car at road junctions, for another stretch of the Cotswold Way in Gloucestershire—and what a lovely stretch it … Continue reading →

Posted in AONB, commons, National trail, Public paths, walking, walks | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Vismigging at Ivinghoe

Posted on 22/10/2023 by campaignerkate

I pitched up at Ivinghoe Beacon car park before dawn today, to join members of the Bucks Bird Club in watching the visible migration (vismig) largely from the east. Ivinghoe Beacon, in the Bucks Chilterns, is the northern end of … Continue reading →

Posted in AONB, Birds, Bucks, Chilterns, National trail | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Ridgeway at 50

Posted on 10/10/2023 by campaignerkate

It could not have been a better day for the 50th-anniversary celebration of the Ridgeway as a national trail (originally known as a long-distance path). We met on Coombe Hill, near Wendover in the Chilterns, on 29 September, where the … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, AONB, campaigns, Chilterns, National trail, riding, walking | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments