Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire
97 km / 60 miles
(click to enlarge)
This is a walk which celebrates the countryside around Nottingham. It is roughly a circular walk and at 60 miles long, each mile walked represents a minute on the clock face. It is divided into twelve parts- like the twelve numbers on a clock - and although a circular route can be walked in either direction, surely the only way to complete this would be clockwise!
It explores the rich tapestry of local history, from the rolling hills and gentle valleys of the west and north with its industrial past of mills, ex-mining towns, canals and railways, to the flatter more rural are to the east and south of the city which is agricultural and dotted with small villages.
Criss-crossing this area is a whole range of transport routes used over the centuries - and the Clockwalk explores a wide selection of these - walkways from ancient trackways and holloways to paths alongside modern motorways; railways from long-closed mineral lines to modern mainlines and the route of the proposed new HS2; waterways including the Trent, the industrial Erewash canal still open today, and the agricultural Grantham canal closed in the 1930s.
It even visits the site of two wartime airfields and passes close to the busy East Midlands airport.
There is a strong emphasis throughout on using public transport, so each of the twelve sections starts and ends at a place with public transport links to the City.
The accompanying website includes comprehensive route descriptions for each section, together with information about places passed along the way.
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