Spaces still available for the Annual Bathscape Walking Festival

Bathscape has released the programme of walks for its popular annual walking festival encouraging people to get outside and enjoy the landscape during the two weeks of events in September.

This year’s festival will be launched with a family day in Kensington Meadows on Saturday 11 September in partnership with Cleveland Pools Trust. There will be plenty of nature-based activities including wild play from the Bath Area Play Project and a new walking trail suitable for all ages from Cleveland Pools Trust.

The festival programme includes a range of themes and difficulty levels to suit walkers of all abilities.

History buffs can learn about industrial heritage on a walk from Paulton to Dundas following the Limestone Link and the route of the Somersetshire Coal Canal, which was built to carry coal down to the Kennet and Avon Canal. (There’s the option of a minibus back to Paulton after the walk.)

Outside the city, there are plenty of rural hikes to explore the countryside around Upper Swainswick, Weston, Lansdown, North Stoke, Kelston, Somer Valley and Combe Down, just remember to pack your lunch and a bottle of water.

New for this year are walks tracing the story of Bath’s LGBTQ+ lives, activism and community and telling the history of the Southdown housing development, seen as a model neighbourhood.

The Festival includes a host of wellbeing walks, shorter walks offering people the chance to increase their fitness or socialise as part of a friendly group.

As usual the festival will close with the Julian House Circuit of Bath walk on Sunday 26 September. A 20-mile challenge offering stunning views and landscapes across the city in aid of charity. This is also a great way to celebrate 50 years of the Cotswold Way. As part of the Bathscape project, Cotswold Voluntary Wardens and local Ramblers have been waymarking the whole of the 20-mile route, ready for the Festival.

More information can be found on the website or you can email info@bathscape.co.uk or call us on 01225 477265 and we can tell you about any walks near you.