Popular Walking Festival Back This May

One of the UK’s longest running and most popular Walking Festivals in back after a two-year hiatus due to Covid.

Suffolk Walking Festival, which runs between 14th to the 29th May 2022 and is now in its 14th year, boasts over 70 guided walks and covers over 400 miles, traversing open countryside, outstanding landscapes, rolling hills, historic villages, riversides, forests, and coastal beauty spots.

With lots of weekend, evening and family walks, the programme has accessible, short, medium, long-distance walks as well as longer, more challenging walks so there’s something for everyone.

Some of the highlights of this year’s programme include:

• Celebrate 75 years of RSPB Minsmere
• Discover a dragon in the iconic Stour Valley
• Hear stories of smugglers and discover shipping routes at Dunwich Heath
• Catch a unique glimpse of Sweep the sheepdog managing Orford Ness Nature Reserve’s very own herd of rare breed sheep
• Bluebell walks, badger walks, guided walks, Nordic walking
• Tune into bats and owls on a twilight safari through ancient Woodland at Priestly Wood
• Brush up on whittling skills, make damper bread over an open fire and get crafty at various locations in Suffolk.

“Suffolk is one of the UK’s best walking destinations, with over 3,500 miles of public rights of way across the county. Due to its heritage of Anglo-Saxon routes, the county has if not THE highest density of walking trails in the UK, then is certainly one of them,” said David Falk, Green Access Manager for Discover Suffolk, and curator of the Suffolk Walking Festival, who added, “If you are one of the 25% of people* who have vowed to walk further and for longer post pandemic, joining the Suffolk Walking Festival is a wonderful way to keep up good habits whilst having fun and meeting others, from regular walkers to first timers.”

New App

Discover Suffolk has launched a new, free of charge app which includes 100 of the best walks in Suffolk for people of all abilities. Linked to Ordnance Survey navigation, the app also provides more information about walking trails, audio clips and guidance on the Countryside Code.