No better way to walk off breakfast than wandering along beautiful Peddars Way

 

Walking the Peddars Way and the Norfolk Coastal Path
 
If you love walking in the countryside  then Magazine Wood B&B in North Norfolk  is a perfect base for exploring coast, country, fen and forest being  located directly on the ancient Peddars Way National Trail.

 Map of Norfolk Coast           . 

Peddars Way and the Norfolk coastal path runs for 93 miles along a distinctive Roman road from Knettishall Heath Country Park to just beyond Magazine Wood at Holme-next-Sea and then the path crosses wide sandy beaches to Cromer pier

The Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path National Trail combines two contrasting paths, ePeddars Way Accommodationach of which is a superb walk in its own right. The trail follows the line of a Roman road, builtPeddars Way B&B during Rome's battle against the rebellious Iceni tribe led by the legendary Queen Boadicea. It is an enjoyable mix of country lanes, footpaths and tracks through a varied landscape of open heath and meres, woodland, rich farmland divided by flower-filled hedgerows and pretty flint and carrstone villages.

East of Ringstead about 30 minutes walk from Magazine you pass the entrance to Courtyard Farm, owned by environmental campaigner Peter Melchett, who has opened his estate to walkers: there are some 10 miles of paths and circular walks. The farm was transformed in the 1990s from a cereal producing arable site to a thriving organic mixed arable and livestock farm, with the aim of enhancing wildlife and improving land fertility.

The Norfolk Coast Path runs from the Victorian resort of Hunstanton to the busy port of Cromer, the hub of Peddars Way hotelNorfolk's crab fishing industry, along a coastline that is famous for its remoteness and wild beauty. It is a wonderfully diverse landscape of sweeping sandy beaches, grass tufted dunes, saltings, reed beds,  creeks, tidal inlets and unspoilt villages that claim a maritime tradition that saw them send warships to repel the Spanish Armada.

Magnificent stately homes, monasteries, medieval castles, traditional windmills that once ground flour or pumped water to keep the fertile fens from disappearing beneath the sea, the spectacular seal colonies at Blakeney Point and the prolific birdlife along the coast add to the charm of this scenic National Trail. Peddars Way Accommodation

The award winning Coasthopper bus service shadows the Norfolk Coast Path National Trail all the way along from Hunstanton to Cromer, so it's really easy to take the bus, get off for a good walk, and rejoin the bus a bit further along the route. Adult day passes cost just £6 and you can catch this service at Holme on The Norfolk Coast Path National Trail about 4 miles or 90 minutes walk from Magazine. Alternatively you can grab a taxi to Heacham about 5 minutes drive away. Coasthopper buses run at least once an hour making it really easy to access the whole of the coast while leaving the car behind! Download the summer timetable here: http://www.magazinewood.co.uk/CoastHopperSummer2010.pdf

Peddars Way links directly to the much lesser  known walk, the Icknield Way Path which is part of four long distance footpaths which, when combined, run from Lyme Regis, Dorset to Hunstanton, Norfolk and are often referred to as the Greater Ridgeway. The Icknield Way path is supported by the Ramblers Association as part of a campaign to achieve National Trail status for the whole length of the ancient trackways linking the South Coast and the Wash. The path was opened as a promoted route recognised by local authorities in 1992.  

The more modern route roughly follows the route of the original Icknield Way from the Ivinghoe Beacon to Knettishall Heath in Norfolk. This is one of the oldest roads in Great Britain and one of Castle Acre Priory by Peddars Waythe few long-distance trackways to have existed before the Romans occupied the country. It may also have strong links with the the IcAccommodation Norfolk Coast patheni tribe whose influence within Sedgeford is well documented within the SHARP archealogical project. It is thought that the Iceni tribe may have established this road as part of their main trade routes. 

Experts have also suggested that the road has older prehistoric origins. Believing that it predates the Roman invasion and the construction of Peddars Way with its roots being much earlier in the Iron Age period. During Anglo-Saxon times it stretched from Berkshire and Oxfordshire and crossed the River Thames.