Cambridge to Grantchester

The weir and Mill Pool

We were in Cambridge for the St John's College May Ball. This was the afternoon afterwards and the idea was to take a healthy, restorative stroll in the country.

We started our walk in the centre of Cambridge - in the market place. We walked down King's Parade, into Trumpington Street and right into Mill Lane. We crossed the path above the Mill Pool and struck out along the right bank of the river to take the "Grantchester Grind" (why?). We were puzzled to see signs for Newnham and Trumpington, but none for Grantchester.

A short way along we found this family of swans practising grooming in perfect harmony.


We walked along the area split by the Fen Causeway, crossed under it and steered right of a dead end in the river to pass through the Paradise nature reserve (perhaps a touch extravagantly named). This brought us to the street named Grantchester Meadows and a bit further on we reached the Meadows themselves and could finally feel free of the town.

This large open area had cows grazing and students picnicking. Canoes as well as punts passed by on the river. A troop of swallows entertained us with acrobatic stunts.



We chose the riverside path over the straighter path further away from the bank and meandered our way on to Grantchester. This typical section marked the point where we headed away from the river towards the village.



We crossed a large field and - rather wonderfully - found ourselves in the Orchard tea garden. It was established as such in 1897 and soon became the haunt of Rupert Brooke, Virginia Woolf and sundry other luminaries. It remains a wonderful place, with its green deck chairs scattered in clumps beneath the trees.



Despite a refreshing break here, we found we had not sufficiently recovered from our exertions of the night before and not getting to bed until 5.30. So we did not further explore Grantchester, see the Mill or Byron's pool. Instead, we traced our steps back to Cambridge.

Conditions: hot, sunny.

Distance: About 5 miles in all.

Rating: three and half stars.