Icknield Way: Royston to Linton

I arrived around 9 am at Royston, it was going to be another pleasant day and I headed off through the town to find the route, stopping to get a coffee and a pastry at a cafe called Kooky Nohmad. The route heads Westwards out of town along a road for about 1.5 kilometres before changing to a footpath that follows along a busy A road for another kilometres or so, mainly along field boundaries. After leaving the busy road behind the route changes to a long straight bridleway mainly bordered by hedgerows. A few people were about mostly dog walker, though I mainly had the footpath to myself. It going was easy as the route was very flat and at some point it was joined by the Harcamlow Way a 227 kilometre route, before turning South along Heydons Ditch, a Saxon earthworks that formed a boundary between two fields before heading uphill to the village of Heydon.

It was quite warm by now and I headed on through the village along a road passing the village church and some duck ponds, before leaving the village and heading towards the village of Chrishall, where the Harcamlow Way splits off. The route finding was a little difficult here but I was using the OS App on my tablet or phone so had no trouble keeping on the right track. It was only a short walk along a road until the path headed through fields Eastwards towards the village of Elmdon, where the route headed South out of the village.

After Elmdon the succession of villages was left behind and the route continued on though fields and occasionally though some woodlands. After passing near the small hamlet of Strethall before heading gradually North Eastwards over a couple of kilometres to the M11, which was crossed near the town of Great Chesterford. I was feeling quite tired now, it was fairly hot and I’d walked a fair distance, so I decided to stop in a pub for a quick rest, having a pint in the Crown and Thistle, which was on the route. There was a railway station in the village and I was tempted to go home from here but headed on to the village of Linton which was about 6 kilometres away so another couple of hours walking.

The route to Linton was easy walking exclusively though fields, there were no people about, but near the village of Linton I met a solitary dog walker. The final walk along a road into Linton was quite hard going, I was really tired and my feet where painful, despite having taken a few breaks during the the day. I got to the main street in Linton and started to look for the bus stop for the bus to Cambridge, but instead I saw the hourly bus coming towards me. Desperate to catch it, I started running after it, luckily it was caught at a light and after I had knocked on the door the driver indicated the direction to the bus stop. It wasn’t far but a run was the last thing I really needed at this point, thankfully the driver stopped and waited for me and I was soon on the way home.