Our 10 best walks for the festive season and new year
Spend time with family and friends and walk off the seasonal excesses with our pick of the best festive walks across the UK.
Spend time with family and friends and walk off the seasonal excesses with our pick of the best festive walks across the UK.
The festive walk has become as much of a tradition as tinsel, turkey and Christmas pud. It’s a great way to burn off the festive calories and spend time with family or friends (or by yourself!).
We’ve teamed up with the UK’s national mapping agency Ordnance Survey to bring you 10 great walks to try. So, whether you fancy tramping through woodlands, striding along a beachfront or taking in a city stroll, lace up your boots because we’ve got something for everyone.
Ordnance Survey discount for Saga readers
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Woods and parkland in the Chiltern Hills
What could be more seasonal than a walk on Christmas Common? It’s thought the name derived from the abundance of holly trees in the area. Today Christmas trees are grown commercially in the area, so the festive link remains. This walk is still free along good paths and quiet lanes. You’ll take in beech woodlands and the Chiltern escarpment.
Park at the National Trust Watlington Hill car park. Take care on the road out of the car park. There’s also one long climb and one short steep climb, but you’ll enjoy the benefit of great views.
For food and drink afterwards try The Fox & Hounds, on Christmas Common.
The UK’s mistletoe and holly capital
Tenbury Wells is an ancient market town surrounded by orchards. The apple trees are loved by mistletoe, which sparked its seasonal fame – the town claims to be the UK's holly and mistletoe capital. Every December, the town holds a Mistletoe Festival, and you should be able to see the parasitic plant growing wild on this walk.
This is a gentle stroll from the centre of the town, through farmland and woods. Around the halfway point you’ll go over Haws Hill, a great spot to stop for a break and take in the views. There’s a great choice of refreshments in Tenbury when you finish.
Step back in time with Pride and Prejudice locations
The 3,500-acre Lyme Park estate is beautiful at any time of year, but especially at Christmas. This walk offers stunning views and the chance to glimpse the estate’s deer herd. You’ll also see some of the iconic filming locations for the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice drama series. Lyme Park stood in for Mr Darcy’s home.
From the car park, you’ll walk through woodland and up Sponds Hill to enjoy beautiful views, before heading back to the car through the deer park.
There is a choice of refreshments at Lyme Park, but don’t forget to check opening hours.
An easy but stunning waterfront walk
A nice Christmas walk for all the family, with easy, level paths and the UK’s highest beach at its end. This is one of the best Christmas walks for all the family in Scotland.
During this circular stroll, you’ll enjoy stunning views to the mountains (often snow-capped in winter), while the freshwater loch is close to the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd (don’t forget to book if you want to visit).
Parking, toilets and refreshments are all available at the Glenmore Visitor Centre.
Britain’s smallest city and coastal views
St Davids is the UK's smallest city, boasting a 12th-century cathedral. It has been a destination for pilgrims for centuries, so it feels fitting to include this festive walk.
Park in the pay and display car park by the cathedral, then follow the route out of St Davids and down to the coastal path. There are great views out to sea and down to tiny inlets as you walk past St Non’s Chapel and Porthclais Harbour, before returning to St Davids.
Take time to visit the cathedral on your return. You’ll also find a choice of pubs, cafes and restaurants in the centre of St Davids.
Beaches and a thatched inn to finish
Located on the southern shores of Belfast Lough, Crawfordsburn Country Park is a relaxing retreat with sandy beaches, wooded glens and rocky shorelines.
This route follows the circular Meadow Walk, the longest signposted trail, and there’s an optional extension along the coastal path to Grey Point Fort.
A short stroll will take you to the thatched The Old Inn, one of Ireland’s oldest hotels. Visitors have included author CS Lewis and former US president George W Bush.
Capital Christmas cheer
For those living in the capital, you don’t necessarily have to head out of London for some Christmas cheer in the outdoors.
Kew Gardens' kilometre-long Holly Walk is home to one of Europe’s largest collections of holly plants, planted in 1874. Or wait until it’s dark and enjoy the winter light trail (you'll need to pre-book this popular attraction).
You’ll find food venues and pop-up caterers along the route.
A wheelchair-friendly route
The ruins of 12th-century Fountains Abbey are truly something to behold, especially on a frosty winter’s day. Come face to face with some of the oldest and largest abbey ruins in the country, and explore vaulted ceilings, grand columns and an imposing tower. This is a short but accessible route.
Don’t miss the disabled access via the west gate car park, which has designated blue badge parking. You’ll find a National Trust café on site serving refreshments.
Explore a sensory winter garden
Anglesey Abbey boasts 114 acres of grounds, including a renowned sensory Winter Garden. A three-mile circular walk takes in these gardens, which were planted for the sensory qualities of scent, texture and bright colour throughout the colder months.
Anglesey Abbey also boasts one of the finest snowdrop collections in the country, with 400 varieties of these delicate white flowers, many of which are rare. The first snowdrops to appear are usually found beneath the splendour of the Winter Garden, and generally visible from mid-December.
Refreshments are available on site.
Cornish waterfront walk
Trelissick is set on its own small peninsula on the River Fal, and has been looked after by the National Trust since 1955.
This walk explores the mixed woodland on both sides of the Lamouth Creek. It also takes a tour around Iron Age Roundwood Fort, passes the King Harry Ferry and offers spectacular views through the trees.
Refreshments are available at the National Trust café.
More Christmas walks
You can find more festive routes from Ordnance Survey here.
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