Clare joins a long established group as they embark on their 100th walk. Their route takes them from Leigh Woods, under the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and into the heart of Bristol. They call themselves The Old Lags, and every member was responsible during their careers for keeping our lights on and our kettles boiled as employees of the Central Electricity Generating Board. They’re all retired now and David Miller, who runs the Old Lags, is certain they’d have lost touch had it not been...

Clare explores the banks of the River Itchen in Hampshire with Andrew Simkins who has just completed walking around the coast and borders of England. It’s taken him eight years, and it’s been an extraordinary journey in more ways than one. His beloved daughter, Alice, died age 28 in 2016 and he discovered that devoting himself to the process of walking helped him deal with the grief; it gave him a feeling of solace and a sense of connection with her. When people asked him if he was walking...

Clare meets ‘Woman with Altitude’ Lise Wortley who recreates the adventures of overlooked and forgotten female explorers. As Lise takes Clare on a walk around her childhood village of Boxford in Suffolk, she tells Clare why she doesn’t just follow in the footsteps of these incredible women but even wears the same kind of clothing and footwear. Her latest expedition, in woollen skirts and specially made hob-nail boots, was an attempt to climb Mont Blanc on the same route as the French...

Alan Titchmarsh takes Clare Balding for his favourite stroll across Tennyson Down on the Isle of Wight. A keen and regular walker, Alan splits his time between the mainland and the Isle of Wight, and has a lot to share with Clare about this place that he loves. Best known as a TV gardener, interviewer and romantic novelist, Alan grew up in a family that took regular Sunday walks and as a young child developed an affinity for the natural world. Presenter: Clare Balding Producer: Karen Gregor

Clare hikes along a section of the GM Ringway, Greater Manchester’s new walking trail. It’s a 200 mile route split into 20 stages, starting and ending in Manchester city centre. It goes around the edge of the county through all 10 boroughs of the region, and it’s linked with public transport so people can easily access the linear stages. Joining Clare as she walks part of Stage 6, which is Strines to Marple, is Andrew Read whose brilliant idea this was. He was awarded £250k of funding from...

Clare explores the Lower Tavy Valley in Devon with Sharon Gedye a physical geographer who's spent years discovering how the area's rich history has shaped its landscape and people. Sharon takes Clare on a circular walk starting on West Down, on the western edge of Dartmoor, heading down towards the River Tavy and eventually reaching Double Waters, the confluence of the Tavy and Walkham. On the way they see evidence of arsenic mines, copper workings and discuss long forgotten but fascinating...

Clare and the ‘blind adventurer’ Amar Latif explore a circular route in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire. As the current President of the Ramblers, Amar is keen to promote the message that walking is for absolutely everyone, from all backgrounds and abilities. He lost most of his vision by the time he was 18 and found it very hard to accept. He began to believe that he wouldn’t be able to continue doing all the things he enjoyed but after spending a year of his university course in Canada,...

Clare meets the founders of Walking Post on a hike from Oaks Park to Kingswood in Surrey. Walking Post is a not-for-profit website run by friends who have designed, mapped and now share multiple walking routes around London, Surrey, Kent, Essex and beyond. Every walk is accessible by public transport, something key to web-designer Lucy Maddison who doesn’t own a car. The project has expanded from a personal project into what is now a free public resource, and even though Lucy and her...

Clare is in the Cotswolds this week with a fantastic group called Every Body Outdoors. They begin their walk in the village of King’s Stanley, Gloucestershire and complete a five mile circuit taking in a stretch of Stroudwater Canal, before heading up to the top of Selsley Common. Co-founded by Steph Wetherell, Every Body Outdoors is a walking group specifically aimed at plus size people who want to build confidence in the outdoors. Many had tried to join conventional groups but either...

In the second of two walks in the Republic of Ireland, Clare meets rock climber, mountain instructor and walking guide, Iain Miller, to explore a stretch of the wild, rugged and spectacular Atlantic coastline of County Donegal. They meet at what Iain describes as the most remote place in Ireland, An Port, and the route they take from there affords them views over what he says is Ireland’s last great wilderness including some ‘monster’ sea stacks. Iain is originally from Scotland, but has...

In the first of two episodes recorded in the Republic of Ireland, Clare travels to Moyle Hill in County Donegal to meet adventurer and motivational speaker, Nikki Bradley. Diagnosed with a rare bone cancer at just 16 years of age, Nikki (now in her 30s) has defied expectations by living a very active life. She was the first person on crutches to climb four Irish mountain peaks, which took her 32 hours. She scaled the Sólheimajökull glacier in Iceland, and has completed the Fan Dance, one...

David Almond marks 25 years of his extraordinary book, Skellig, with a walk from Seahouses to Bamburgh in Northumberland. As he tells Clare, it's a landscape that has long inspired his imagination and writing. Skellig tells the tale of Michael, a young boy who befriends a magical creature - part owl, part angel – that needs Michael’s help to survive. The book has won multiple awards, been adapted for stage, film, radio and opera and translated into 40 languages. As they walk, David tells...

Clare walks to a glorious display of bluebells to capture them in watercolour in the company of artist Shelly Perkins. On a beautiful day in mid-May they set off into Mortimer Forest near Ludlow to find several acres of bluebells that stretch across high meadlowland. Shelly is an artist and while Clare is not known for her painting prowess, they take a moment to stop, take in the bluey purply haze and capture it in vivid watercolours en plein air. Clare and Shelly met at the Black Pool...

Nadeem Perera is not your conventional image of a birdwatcher. In fact growing up in inner city London he was not raised as or encouraged to be a 'nature boy'. But dropping out of school as a troubled teen he had a revelation. One day he was sitting in woodland and saw a green spotted woodpecker in front of him and his passion for birds was born. Now he can be seen on BBC 1 on the One Show talking about birds and has moved to Bristol to further his career in wildlife presenting. He takes...

When author Annabel Abbs suffered a series of bereavements she found herself unable to sleep. Eventually she began getting up and walking around her garden and neighbouring fields around 3am. But when she heard about Caroline Whiteman who runs guided walks at night without head torches, she just had to go along on one. Caroline began the walks as an experiment in overcoming her fear of the dark. She has found other people keen to get out at night and experience the dark in a totally...

The beautiful Borders of Scotland is the location for Clare’s walk this week. She’s exploring the area around Innerleithen with Stewart Wilson. After a career in finance Stewart made a handbrake turn in his early 40s and became a tour guide and travel blogger. He says most visitors to Scotland bypass the Borders for Edinburgh or the Highlands and Islands but – in doing so – are missing out on gorgeous scenery and fascinating history. So today Stewart wants to share what it is about the...

Clare joins Hannah Engelkamp and her donkey, Chico, for a ramble in the Dyfi Valley a few miles east of Machynlleth in Powys. On the way Hannah tells Clare about the extraordinary adventure she shared with Chico when they walked 1000 miles around the perimeter of Wales. She did this despite having no previous experience of donkeys, or horses, or any animals really. It took twice as long as she intended and was much harder than she ever imagined. The idea of 'carrot or stick' doesn't...

A cliff edge walk at St. David's in Pembrokeshire with artists Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott who are creating a book of illuminated folk stories. Jackie is writing the words and Tamsin is creating original pieces of stained glass for the book's artwork. Jackie is an artist and writer possibly best known for her illustrations in The Lost Words, a large and beautiful book about language and nature. Tamsin is an established stained glass artist and illustrator inspired by the natural...

Clare joins PE Teacher Julie Ford for a bracing walk on the Seven Sisters near Eastbourne. It's a walk with a difference. Following a brush with breast cancer Julie was keen to keep fit but no longer wanted to go to the gym. As a passionate walker she was getting good exercise but needed to maintain her upper body strength. So through a process of trial and error Julie has created a way of walking with resistance bands. She takes Clare on a walk on the South Downs on a beautiful sunny...

A joyful hike up Castle Hill near Huddersfield with We In Front, an inspirational group of walkers. Leading the way is Errol Hamlet who, having retired, felt bored, unhealthy and wanted a new challenge. He spotted a neighbour out walking during the pandemic and decided to join her. Then, one by one, more people joined until they eventually had a decent sized group. Most are senior citizens from the local West Indian community and they can often be heard singing as they disappear into the...

Clare chooses some favourite moments from her Ramblings year: Join brothers Manni and Reuben Coe who amble down to Hive Beach in Dorset on a calm summer's day. On the way they recall the emotional story of how Reuben, who has Down's Syndrome, was nurtured back to health partly by walking that very route. Head to Orkney where Clare battles 60mph winds in one of the wildest episodes we've yet recorded. Hike up Shutlingsloe with Frank Milner, in training to climb Kilimanjaro on his 82nd...

In 2019 Anita Sethi was on a trans Pennine train journey when she was racially abused by a man who later pleaded guilty to the offence. During the attack he told her to go back to where she belonged. Having been born and raised in Manchester Anita feels very strongly that the North of England is where she belongs and as a way of working through the shock and trauma of the incident she began a journey through the Pennines on foot beginning at the uplifting and positively named Hope in the...

Rose Mac moved to the North West from London a year ago and is constantly delighted by the nature and walking possibilities of her new home. Ainsdale Nature Reserve houses a rare species of sand lizard as well as natterjack toads. A walk through the pine woodland close to the town's railway station brings you out into beautiful sand dunes and a massive expanse of beach with views of Blackpool Tower to the North and on a clear day the Isle of Man to the west. Rose enthusiastically shows...

Clare walks with Mike Gunton, the man in charge of Planet Earth III, another blockbuster series from the BBC’s Natural History Unit. Mike’s a passionate walker and he takes Clare on a favourite local route around Oldbury on Severn where he courted his wife, and once filmed a sequence in a graveyard about the grim sounding ‘burying beetle’. He also shares stories of his many years working with Sir David Attenborough, and what it’s like making some of the most beautiful and memorable TV shows...