Thursday 21 June 2012

Lost Routes in Wales

Did anyone see Griff Rhys Jones at 7pm last night on BBC1?
The program was Britain's Lost Routes, and episode 4 last night followed the route of mediaeval pilgrims from Holywell by the river Dee to St David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire. If you missed it you can catch it here on the BBC iPlayer.


The landscape was glorious and Griff and his 4 companions have fun bathing in holy water, winnowing wooden staves, foraging for food and trudging along one of what they call "The forgotten routes that made this country."
It was all great fun though a little superficial and, because many of the pilgrimage routes are now main roads, much of the journey was undertaken in a Range Rover.
Later in the week Peter will be reporting on some of the places in North Wales featured in the program and unearthing more information and indicating circular walking routes from these places which can make the base for a great day out in North Wales. Watch this space!

6 comments:

  1. I saw this. Interesting programme.

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  2. I saw it too. But I didn't get the sense that they were putting any real effort into the walking and they didn't show us a proper map of the route as it is today.

    It's alright talking about Ogilby maps but there no good if you want to walk it today on a completely changed landscape.

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  3. I'm heading to North Wales in August, can anyone recommend a good walking guide?

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  4. Just a shame so much was driven now, it would have been lovely to walk the whole route.

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  5. Great programme, great series, prompted me to fish my walking boots out.

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  6. The best guide is actually to study the Walking North Wales website, click on the walks and to print them out. Then to buy a detailed 1:25000 OS map of the area that you intend to explore.

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