National Walking Month: UK and Ireland restaurants spotlight scenic routes for food-loving ramblers

May marks National Walking Month, an annual initiative encouraging people across the UK to take up walking as a form of low-impact exercise. To coincide with the campaign, several restaurants and pubs across Cornwall, Yorkshire and County Cavan in Ireland are highlighting walking routes near their premises, offering visitors the opportunity to combine countryside rambles with regional food and accommodation.

In Cornwall, a newly completed section of the King Charles III England Coast Path – at nearly 2,700 miles long, now the longest coastal walking route in the world – has officially opened around Padstow and Rock. Walkers in the area can stop at The Mariners (ranked fifth on the latest Top 50 Gastropubs list) before crossing the estuary to Padstow. There, the Ainsworth Collection operates several venues, including the Michelin-starred No6, the Mediterranean-influenced Caffè Rojano and the Padstow Townhouse, which has recently been awarded a Michelin Key. St Enodoc, also run by chef Paul Ainsworth, is due to reopen in late July as Rock’s only hotel.

In North Yorkshire, the village of Oldstead is home to chef Tommy Banks’s Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms, The Black Swan, as well as the nearby Abbey Inn. Walking routes in the area have been mapped by Banks’s grandfather, Fred Banks, and range from shorter circuits such as Scencliffe Grange and Fox Folly to longer trails including the Oldstead Observatory and Wass walk. The Abbey Inn, which overlooks the ruins of Byland Abbey, was named Best Sunday Roast in the UK by the Good Food Guide.

Further south-west, near Harrogate, The General Tarleton, an 18^th-century pub with rooms in the village of Ferrensby, provides a base for walks in the Yorkshire Dales, including Aysgarth Falls, Malham Cove, Pen-y-Ghent and the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail. Since reopening under Banks and Jeopardy Hospitality, the pub has been listed in the Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Pubs and named an Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs’ One to Watch.

In County Cavan, Ireland, chef Richard Corrigan’s six-bedroom Deerpark Inn sits close to his Virginia Park Lodge estate. Visitors can walk through the historic Deerpark Forest, following heritage trails originally established by the Marquis of Headfort, the estate’s former owner. Routes pass stone bridges, wells, ice houses and the banks of Lough Ramor. The inn’s menu features produce from the Virginia Park Lodge gardens, including Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Baska Sourdough Melt and Deerpark Pork with Smoked Jalapeño Potatoes.

For those who are town-bound or prefer an urban stroll, cities across the country have released maps and guides. London’s food and drink offering is internationally recognised, and Transport for London’s Walking Map provides an excellent starting point to explore the capital, with diverse culinary delights along the way.

National Walking Month is a longstanding initiative founded by charity Living Streets. It has grown from a local effort to reduce car usage into a nationwide campaign that’s celebrated by community groups, councils, schools and individuals across the UK. Over time, campaigns have evolved to highlight specific benefits, including improved physical fitness, mental health support (particularly during the pandemic), environmental change and cleaner air, and creating more walkable, sustainable communities. And if there’s somewhere delicious to stop on the way, even better!

Food Desk

National Walking Month takes place annually in May. For further information, visit Living Streets’ website here.