About Little Legs Walks

Why Little Legs Walks?

Little Legs Walks was born out of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in the UK.

As a family we had always enjoyed walking together, but the allowance of an hour's daily exercise being the only time we were allowed out of the house all together gave rise to a desire to find new and different places to walk. Some of the walks featured on this blog will be from the time when driving somewhere else to exercise wasn't permitted, others will be from after that restriction was lifted.

Although we have completed longer walks in the past, particularly ones on mountains such as Ingleborough, Cadair Idris and Cnicht, our daily walks needed to be a little shorter - we often wanted something we could do between meals i.e. in a morning or an afternoon. With children ages 9, 8 and 6 the walks couldn't be too long as they generally move at a slower pace - often stopping to smell the roses, literally and metaphorically.

Pre-lockdown I had bought a set of OS Explorer maps covering our local area so when Stay Home kicked in, and once we'd got bored of our usual walks, I opened up the maps and set about planning suitable routes based on those joyous green dotted lines.

There are several criteria that subconsciously I use when planning a walk:

• Parking - there must be nearby parking, preferably free (since writing the walks up I have also considered public transport access as I appreciate not everyone has their own transport).
• Off the beaten track - not a well-known tourist-y place (social distancing made easy, plus I have never liked going to busy places) and avoiding roads and pavements where possible for added safety for the children).
• Varying landscape - when there's something a little different around every other corner children are much more likely to remain engaged. I also find it helpful for there to be some sort of destination too, even on a round walk.
• Cover - this applies to summer walks only really: I like to find a walk where there will be some shade on hot days.
• Overall ease - it could be a longer walk with fewer hills, or a shorter walk with more hills;  I try to balance this out when planning a Little Legs Walk.
• On the map - I like to see where I am going so always start with the map (although often look at satellite imagery too to get a good picture of the lie of the land).

There are probably other criteria, depending on the day and the requirements we have. In the notes on the walk I will try to include information about what else can be done during the walk e.g. paddling in a river - some days a walk just must include this!

I hope that if you stumble across this site, you will find walks that you can actually do with small children that don't wildly overestimate the stamina of your little ones. They aren't just for children though - they are chance to get out into the great outdoors and quickly be away from it all, even if just for an hour or so. I hope that some adults who can't, or don't want to, embark on a huge hike will find these walk ideas useful too.