Ramblings

Clare Balding is walking with dogs (and their owners) in this series of Ramblings. Programme 3: Alnmouth, Northumberland If you go walking with a dog, something extraordinary happens: complete strangers will talk to you. Sometimes this doesn't go any further than a regular 'good morning' but occasionally strong friendships are formed. On this week's Ramblings Clare Balding goes walking in rural No...

Clare Balding is walking with dogs (and their owners) in this new series of Ramblings. Prog 5: Dartmoor with Alex Lyons who is a search and rescue dog handler. Alex Lyons is a dog handler with the Tavistock-Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team. He and several members of his team - and their dogs - take Clare for a wild, wet and windy walk on Dartmoor. Clare sees how the rescue dogs work, and asks why a...

Clare Balding is walking with dogs (and their owners) in this new series of Ramblings. Programme 1: Flamborough Head to Bridlington with Stuart Jessup, Kate Atkin and Poppy the springer spaniel. Stuart Jessup and his springer spaniel, Poppy, started an 8 month, 2,500 mile walk around the English coast in October 2011. Occasionally joined by Stuart's wife, Kate, Stuart is walking as part of a campa...

In the final programme in a series of inspirational walks, Clare Balding is joined by the former poet laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, to walk around the village of Stisted in Essex. As they walk around the village, Sir Andrew tells Clare about his memories of growing up in the village where he was first inspired to write poetry. Presenter: Clare Balding Producer: Helen Chetwynd.

Clare Balding walks part of the Beacons Way in the Brecon Beacons National Park to find out how people are being inspired to create their own response to the surrounding landscape. The Park's landscape has inspired artists for generations and today Clare is joined by Robert Macdonald, one of 8 artists to create a series of images which are set into stone along sections of the footpath as part of a...

Almost 80 years since the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout, Clare Balding joins ramblers from Manchester and Sheffield to mark this inspirational moment in walking history. On April 24th 1932, around 400 ramblers from Lancashire set off from Bowden Bridge quarry near Hayfield to walk up onto the plateau of Kinder Scout, the highest point in the Derbyshire Peak District, in protest at the lack of the...

In the third in a series of inspirational walks for Ramblings, Clare Balding is in Cornwall where she is joined by writer and storyteller, Anna Maria Murphy. Inspired by the story of Mary Kelynack, an 84 year old Cornish fishwife who walked from Newlyn to London in 1851, Anna decided to walk all over Cornwall meeting people along the way and gathering stories to inspire her writing. Using ancient...

In the second in a series of inspirational walks, Clare Balding joins members of the Wee Binnians, Northern Ireland's biggest walking club. The walking club was set up in 1987 by Veronica McCann who, over the years, has inspired countless people to join her in walking the hills and valleys of Northern Ireland's Mourne Mountains. Described by Veronica as 'a social group that walks, the Wee Binnians...

Clare Balding returns with a new series of Ramblings in which she joins people who have either been inspired, or have inspired others, to walk in the British countryside. In the first of the series Clare joins keen walker and Director General of the National Trust, Dame Fiona Reynolds, to walk a section of the new Octavia Hill Centenary Trail in Kent. Co-founder of the National Trust, Octavia Hill...

Clare Balding joins Gordon and Caroline Luff and their son, Sam, to walk a section of the South West Coastal Path from Hope Cove to Salcombe. This is thought to be one of the most beautiful stretches of the 630 mile long distance footpath where kestrels and peregrine falcons can be seen flying above the cliffs and seals can sometimes be seen down below. The walk is one that Gordon and Caroline hav...

In the fifth of this series of listener's walks, Clare Blading sets out three people who live in Lincolnshire and share a passion for the Wolds. Listener, Mike Garrs, invited Clare to join him in the landscape that he loves and where he walks regularly with friends. They are joined by Pete Skipworth, who has traced his ancestry in the Lincolnshire Wolds back to the fourteenth century and who has a...

In the fourth in a series of listener suggestions for Ramblings, Clare Balding walks part of the ancient track of the Pilgrim's Way in Kent. Often thought of as a 'corridor', the county that travellers pass through en route to somewhere else, the Kent countryside has much to offer, as Clare discovers . Clare joins a group of friend who, since retiring, meet regularly to walk some of the 4,000 mile...

In the third programme in a series of walks suggested by listeners, Clare Balding joins Colin Speakman, creator of the Dales Way and campaigner for walkers' rights. The Dales Way is one of Britain's most popular and cherished routes and for over 40 years walkers have followed its route from Ilkley in Yorkshire to Bowness-on-Windermere, passing through the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park...

In the second of a series of walks suggested by listeners to Ramblings, Clare Balding explores the area around the gritstone escarpment of The Roaches on the edge of the Peak District. The Roaches form a prominent rocky ridge situated above Leek in Staffordshire and this spectacular rocky escarpment, worn into weird and wonderful shapes over centuries by the elements, almost seems to stand guard o...

Clare Balding returns with a new series of walks based on suggestions from listeners to the programme. The series begins as Clare joins John Jones, lead singer and melodeon player of the folk rock group, Oysterband. Back in 2009, John decided to bring together the two passions in his life, walking and music. Marrying the private and public for the first time, he set off on the Feet Don't Fail Me T...

Alan Garner spent his early childhood in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, England, and he remains associated with the area. Many of his works, including The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath, are drawn from local legends and locations. Clare Balding walks with him to hear more about the area and how it inspired his writing.

Daphne Du Maurier lived and worked in Cornwall and the area surrounding Fowey features in many of her novels. Today the town is home to the annual Daphne Du Maurier festival and this year is it's 10th anniversary. Clare Balding discovers how the area inspired many features of Du Mauriers work and meets local experts including Du Maurier's son.

Inspired by Richard Dawkins book 'The Ancestor's tale: a pilgrimage to the dawn of life' the 'Ancestor's Trail' is intended as a celebration of evolution. Darwin's Tree is represented by footpaths over the Quantock hills and whilst some walkers will begin the 13 mile hike representing the human journey others may join as elephants, reptiles or even jellyfish further down the line. Clare Balding me...

Clare Balding joins walkers and members of the Malcolm Saville society in the Shropshire Hills where the author of children's fiction based his Lone Pine series.

Clare Balding walks on the Black Hill near to Hereford in the footsteps of novelist Bruce Chatwin who explored the border between Wales and England for his eponymous novel. She's joined by local writer and walker Bill Laws.

Clare Balding is back with a new series of walks with a literary theme, beginning in Heptonstall, the childhood home of poet Ted Hughes, and the burial place of his wife, Sylvia Plath. The rugged landscape influenced not only their work but many other poets. Clare joins John Billingsley a keen rambler and Hughes enthusiast, as well as other writers and walkers to experience the harsh beauty of Bro...

In the last programme of the series, Stuart Maconie walks the Lickey Hills overlooking Birmingham with a group of first time walkers, from the inner city.

Stuart Maconie takes in the Manchester skyline with poet Simon Armitage on his home turf.

Continuing his series of short walks for winter days that take in city skylines, Stuart Maconie walks the Garth outside of Cardiff with a group who call themselves Welsh Women Walking. As they admire spectacular views of the city and over the Bristol Channel to Somerset and Devon, Stuart hears from one woman who says these walks with her friends, saved her life and sanity after the death of her so...

Broadcaster, journalist and keen walker Stuart Maconie continues this series of Ramblings, finding walks that are perfect for short winter days and which offer skyline views of British cities. Today, he's setting out from the village of Slyne in Lancashire and heading to look over the historical city of Lancaster. Producer: Helen Chetwynd.