Icknield Way (by Robert)

 

There is a chain of gentle chalk hills stretching from the sea across England. People have used these hills to walk safely above dense forest and tricky marshes for over 4000 years. The braid of tracks that resulted is the Icknield Way - more of an idea than one well-defined trail. To learn more about this idea, I spent two days walking along the Way last week. My plan was to take a morning train to Baldock - a propitious place where the Icknield Way crosses the Northern Road (another ancient track) - and just walk back home to Cambridge. Baldock is now a sleepy bedroom community for London with a conspicuously oversized church giving away its former importance.

The first day (28 miles) took me from Baldock via Therfield to a nice lunch in Royston.

The churches along the way were great, all open for visitors to check out, some grander than others.

Overall, I was surprise by how deserted this countryside is. The few pubs that exist are mostly closed on weekdays (when I was there), and there really is no other commercial anything. Just pretty cottages with very nice cars parked out front... After a dinner in Great Chesterford, I bunked down in a thicket. The weather window held, which was great as I brought no tent

The second day (29 miles) started with a longish walk to Linton and a fabulous breakfast involving pistachio cake.

After the lack of cute shops during the first day, I had to stop at this place in Balsham:

...where I also almost bought a walking stick.

As the day went by, sheep gave way to horses because I was nearing Newmarket - the center of English horse everything. Once nearly there, I could see some of the racecourses.

My view was great because I was walking along Devil's Dyke - a 7 mile wall and trench 1500 years old, and apparently build by the Saxons to repel the Britons.

When the Dyke ended, I was in the Fens - a flat area north of Cambridge. 

Unfortunately, I did not quite walk all the way home - the temptation to take the train for the last few miles was overwhelming after I found that this nice pub I was aiming for was already closed for food...

So that was Icknield Way, a walk through history...