Shetland
Start/end Bird Observatory
Distance 4 miles
Time 2 hours if you go all the way south
My first encounter with Shetland was Fair Isle, the most remote inhabited island in the UK. I washed up there, a university dropout, to be assistant cook in the bird observatory. It’s the island I know and love best, and it’s where the character DI Jimmy Perez in my Shetland series of murder mysteries was born. It’s also where the BBC filmed part of the adaptation of my book Blue Lightning for the series, and on this walk, you’ll glimpse many of the background scenes.
Most visitors stay at the Bird Observatory & Guesthouse near the north end of the island. The accommodation is quite grand now: all the rooms are en suite and there’s a bar. The staff census the birds on the island and although everyone is welcome, this is a working place and many of the guests are amateur ornithologists.
The island is about three miles long and a mile-and-a-half wide, but it’s hilly and there are inlets, known as geos, in the cliffs, so it would be a stretch to walk all the way round in one go. A stroll from the observatory takes you across the track to the promontory of Buness. From here, watch the arrival of the mail boat, the Good Shepherd, and meet the islanders who turn out to unload it. In late spring and summer, it’s a great place to spot the puffins that nest close to the cliff edge.
Retrace your steps and follow the road south until you come to the drystone wall, the dyke, which cuts across the low land to the east. This marshy area is called Gilsetter, and in the summer it’s covered in wildflowers. Either continue south along the footpath, or head further east towards the sea and Sheep Rock, which provides the distinctive profile of the Isle.
If you rejoin the track further south, you’ll come to the more densely inhabited part of the island. The crofts, where most islanders live, are here, with the shop, the kirk and the small museum.
The road splits close to the school so it’s possible to do a circular walk, either by going all the way to the south harbour or by cutting across the footpath past the museum. If you go south, take a look at the small graveyard, next to the shore. It’s a fascinating record of island history.
Heading back to the observatory, you’ll see Malcolm’s Head to the west. From the top, the south of the island is spread beneath you and there’s a view north towards Ward Hill and the stunning cliffs that are home to Fair Isle’s gannets. If you venture on to the hill in the breeding season, beware of the “bonxies” (the great skuas) that protect their young by dive- bombing intruders.
Fair Isle is a magical place for the photographer and natural historian. But it’s the people who make it so special. So, if you visit, do make an effort to get to know them – go along to island events, use the shop, visit the museum. You might meet the original Jimmy Perez. AC
• Wild Fire, by Ann Cleeves, the last in the Shetland series, is published by Pan. Series five of Shetland is on BBC One at 9pm on Tuesdays
Requiem, southern Snowdonia
Start/end Eldon Sq, Dolgellau
Distance 8½ miles
Time 6-8 hours
“Please don’t say it like that,” I implored my walking companion, Rob, as we headed into the small market town of Dolgellau in Gwynedd.
We were stocking up on snacks before a hike, and he insisted on calling it “Dolly-gelloo” (it should be Dol-geth-lie).
“You’ll get us into all kinds of trouble,” I sighed, as I ushered him out of the grocery store to the start of our trail.
Trouble, of the fictional kind anyway, is something that has become synonymous with this place of late, since it appeared as the fictional Welsh village of Penllynith in the BBC thriller Requiem, about a missing girl and a woman called Matilda trying to find the truth about what happened to her.
The producers are said to have selected this location because of the mysticism of the rugged Welsh landscape, and you don’t get more mystical than the full day’s stroll up to the peak of Cadair Idris that looms above it. This is where we were headed, a place full of tales of ghouls and spectres: it’s said to be the “Chair of Idris”, the giant who sits in the cwm (hollow) below the summit, watching the stars, as well as the hunting ground for Gwyn ap Nudd (the Lord of the Underworld), and home to a monster in the “bottomless” lake of Llyn y Gadair.
We followed a network of connecting footpaths to the base of the summit trail at the Gwernan Lake Hotel. From here we headed uphill, first through woodland where the trees bent over the path in perfect fairytale formation. Then out onto the hillside, following the contours up to the famed lake.
We spent the next couple of hours climbing further still, gawping at otherworldly views as we wove through jagged rocks on a boot-beaten path. On reaching the top I turned to Rob and said: “You know, if you spend a night on the summit you are supposed to either become a poet or go mad …”
“No need,” replied Rob, smiling. “There was a young woman from Venus…”
Where was Gwyn ap Nudd when you needed him?
On the way back to town, we stopped on the cliff edges that surrounded the water. Rocks lined the slopes, where they had stopped mid-tumble while spilling into it like granulated sugar. It reminded me of a dramatic scene in the TV show, where the voiceover tells us that this area is “not like anywhere else”. Peering down at this massive amphitheatre of rock, we were inclined to finally agree. The names of the places may sound make-believe, and Requiem is a work of fiction, but the walk from Dolgellau to Cadair Idris is, in real life, better than anything you could ever imagine. PS
Game of Thrones: Dark Hedges, County Antrim
Start/end The Hedges Hotel, near Ballymoney
Distance ½ mile
Time As long as you like
There was a time when the Giant’s Causeway was the most famous site in Northern Ireland, but thanks to George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones the whole country is now a TV lover’s playground, from the coast at Ballycastle to the quarry at Magheramorne, which appears as The Wall in earlier seasons, but is said to be Winterfell in the forthcoming finale. The easiest and most atmospheric walk runs under the Dark Hedges – the King’s Road in the books, where trees almost 250 years old form a tunnel over the narrow lane, creating a passageway – particularly from the south. There’s parking (for a charge) in the hotel. Avoid the crowds by going at first light, or late thing in the day, when you may spot the apparition of the grey lady. Now there’s another series just waiting to be made … PS
Phantom Thread: Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire
Start/end Victoria Hotel, Robin Hood’s Bay
Distance 7 miles
Time 3-4 hours
It may have provided the setting for the film in which Daniel Day Lewis made his final scenes before retiring from the film business, but the village of Robin Hood’s Bay – and the North Yorkshire coast beyond – are by no means approaching a curtain call. Head first for the Victoria Hotel, whose restaurant is the location in which fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock first meets waitress Alma in Phantom Thread.
Then head out, like they do, to stroll south, first along the wild stretch of sand below the cliffs (keep an eye out for ammonite fossils amid the “scars”, or cliffs). At the seaside village of Ravenscar, climb up to the Cleveland Way to walk back, while gazing down on the coast, following in the footsteps of both dinosaurs and cinematic legends. PS
Sex Education: Wordsworth Walk, Wye Valley
Start/end Brown’s Village Stores, Llandogo, Monmouthshire
Distance 3 miles
Time 2 hours
If you’d passed through this Wye Valley enclave last year, you probably wouldn’t have stopped even for a five-minute stroll. Now, however, after the village provided the backdrop to the Netflix hit Sex Education, set in a secondary school and starring Gillian Anderson, fans often linger at the start of this walk to see the shop that features in it.
Do the same – taking time to say hello to Roger and Ruth who own the store – but then follow the circular Wordsworth Walk to dig deeper into this borderland village, which served as muse for a more romantic type of script penned by the poet more usually linked with the Lake District. It takes in churches, an old railway line, a meander by the River Wye and a seat on the Bread and Cheese Stones, where it’s thought Wordsworth sat and was inspired to put pen to paper. PS
Detectorists: Brownsord Way, Suffolk
Start/end Framlingham Castle
Distance 11 miles
Time 5 hours
Finding hidden treasure formed the basis for this comedy starring, written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, but the countryside in which the Detectorists follow their passion is easily discovered without a metal detector in sight.
Framlingham, eastern Suffolk, doubles for the fictional Essex town of Danebury. Start at the church meeting rooms opposite the town’s Norman castle, where Andy (Crook’s character) heads for meetings of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club. Then follow the waymarked Brownsord Way trail on your own hunt through time, via wildflower meadows, a mere dug in the 12th-century that’s home to otters, and Pepper’s Wash, a ford known to be home to Roman remains.
End with a well-earned drink at Framlingham’s Castle Inn, whose exterior fans may recognise as the programme’s Two Brewers pub. PS
