Walking Ancient Trackways Through British Woodland

Some footpaths in Britain are far older than the parishes they cross. Before turnpikes and tarmac, the countryside moved on foot and on hoof along routes worn into the land itself: drovers' roads, packhorse tracks, coffin paths and the deep, shadowed holloways that still cut below the level of the fields around them. Walking one of these old ways is the simplest kind of time travel available to any of us.

Why These Old Routes Still Matter

Drovers moved cattle and sheep from the Welsh hills, the Scottish borders and the northern uplands to lowland markets, sometimes covering hundreds of miles over weeks. They needed grazing on the verges, water at regular intervals and gradients gentle enough for livestock — which is why so many drovers' roads follow ridges and contours rather than the shortest line. On an Ordnance Survey map you will often find a long bridleway named Drove Road or Ox Drove, threading between villages rather than through them.

Holloways are the other great survivor: lanes worn down by centuries of feet, hooves and cartwheels, sometimes three or four metres below the surrounding land. They appear on soft geology — chalk, greensand, sandy loam — where water and traffic could cut deep. A holloway has its own weather, cooler in summer and sheltered in winter, vivid green with moss and hart's-tongue fern.

Reading the Land as You Walk

• Width and straightness: a wide, hedge-free strip that ignores field boundaries usually means an old drove route. Narrow, twisting paths bounded by banks suggest a farm track.
• Banks and ditches: paired banks either side of a path often mark an ancient boundary rather than a modern hedge line.
• Trees on the bank: old boundary hedges were layered with hazel, hawthorn and field maple; a line of mature ash on a bank is often centuries old.
• Bridges and fords: packhorse bridges are narrow, humpbacked and unsuited to carts — a good clue that the route predates wheeled traffic.
• Wayside names: Gallows Hill, Coldharbour and Salter's Lane all hint at older functions.

Hazel, Ash and the Woodland Edge

Along many ancient trackways the woodland has been managed for centuries — coppiced, layered, grazed — and the species mix tells the story. Hazel is the great indicator of old coppice: multi-stemmed stools, catkins from January, nuts ripening from late August. Ash favours the lime-rich soils of holloway banks and was cut on a rotation for tool handles, hurdles and firewood. Field maple, dogwood, spindle and guelder rose often join them in a species-rich hedge.

Where the canopy opens, expect bluebell in late April and May. Native bluebells have narrow leaves and flowers drooping on one side of the stem; the Spanish garden escape is more upright and paler. Never dig them — they are protected in the wild and transplant badly. The same applies to wild garlic, which scents many a damp holloway in spring.

A Year Along the Trackway

• January to March: hazel catkins, the first lesser celandine, wood anemone in sheltered spots, and clear views through leafless trees.
• April to June: bluebells, wild garlic, early purple orchid, and the dawn chorus at full volume.
• July to September: blackberries on the sunny banks, hazelnuts forming, meadowsweet along the damp verges.
• October to December: sloes and rosehips, fungi (identify with great care), and firm, frosty ground underfoot.

Hedgerow Gifts — Taken Sensibly

The old routes were larders as well as highways. Elderflower in late May, elderberries in September, sloes after the first frost, and fat blackberries along any sunny hedge. Follow three rules: never take more than a small share from any one bush, leave the plant intact, and be certain of your identification before anything reaches a pan. Avoid picking beside busy roads or where dogs are walked, and stay off land where picking is not permitted. If in doubt, leave it — the walk is the point.

Practicalities for the Modern Walker

These are working paths, not museums. Many are public footpaths or bridleways, but others cross farmland and may be diverted or temporarily closed. Carry a paper map — phone signal in a deep holloway is often nonexistent — and check the local rights of way map before setting out. Wear boots with real soles; both clay and chalk turn slick after rain.

Keep dogs on a lead near livestock and around ground-nesting birds between March and July. Close gates, take litter home, and greet the farmer whose land you are crossing; the countryside runs on goodwill far more than on signage. Walk quietly, look up as well as down, and notice how the old route still shapes the fields around it. A thousand years of feet have gone this way before you. It is a good feeling to add yours.