Niche travel

Next year sees the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth (well, technically, his baptism) and to mark it, walking holiday operator Celtic Trails is introducing a self-guided “Footsteps of the Bard” walking trail.

Known as Shakespeare’s Way, the route stretches from Stratford-upon-Avon to the Globe theatre on London’s Bankside, where you can finish with a performance of one of his plays.

Walkers travel around 16km a day along footpaths, bridleways and tow paths, plus some minor roads, making the total distance of 230km in 14 days. Shorter versions are also available and guests stay at hand-picked inns with bags transported for you.

The long route takes you through quaint villages and towns such as pretty Shipston-on-Stour, Bladon, where Sir Winston Churchill was buried and Cookham, home of the artist Stanley Spencer.

It also links in with some of England’s most scenic locations including The Cotswolds, Blenheim Park and Palace and Burnham Beeches Nature Reserve. Make like the Bard and break the journey up with a visit to the Crown Inn in Oxford.

It’s a route young Will trod regularly, so who knows how many sonnets were composed along the way. Today, those making the journey on foot get a free copy of the sonnets including, no doubt, the one that goes “Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed/The dear repose for limbs with travel tired/ But then begins a journey in my head/To work my mind, when body’s work expired.”

The 15-night, 14-day B&B trail costs from £1,195pp (€1,425).
celtic-trails.com