Cambridge - Grantchester - Cambridge Colleges and Town

Brian and Anne Sandland

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This walk will be full of interest throughout. Connections with famous names, past and present abound along the way. After the tall splendour of the Roman Catholic Church on the corner of Lensfield Road and Hills Road (a junction known as Hyde Park Corner) you soon pass the Scott Polar Research Institute & Royal Meteorological Society building, followed by the University Chemistry Department.

Then at the junction with Trumpington Road you find a monument and explanation of Hobson's Conduit, a stream you will follow for quite some way. You walk past the Botanic Garden then on to Trumpington, where you take the road for Grantchester. On the way you pass a footpath to Byron's Pool, where the poet spent leisure hours whilst at university.

At Grantchester you pass the home of Jeffrey Archer - The Old Vicarage - which also has links with Rupert Brooke. Following a path through the water meadows alongside the Cam, you return to Cambridge at the sports grounds for St Catharine's and Pembroke Colleges. Then, after Sheep's Green you arrive at Queen's College on Silver Street and head for Queen's Green and on to The Backs, where you pass King's College, Clare, Trinity and St John's.

You next go back to the roads to return via Magdalene College and Magdalene Bridge and complete the circuit, passing the Round Church on Bridge Street and the fronts of St John's, Trinity, Gonville and Caius, Senate House, King's, Corpus Christi, St Catharine's, Pembroke, Peterhouse and Downing Colleges. You also pass a number of churches and the grand Fitzwilliam Museum. You have the opportunity to visit all of the colleges, but several days will be required if you do! This is a walk you can revisit again and again!

England - East England - Cambridgeshire - Town or city

Features

Birds, Church, Great Views, Museum, Play Area, Pub, River, Toilets
5/17/2018 - Douglass David Shadwell

This is an enjoyable and easy walk and was done by my wife and I this week. Rather more concrete and ashphalt than we would like, hence only grade 3.

4/18/2017 - Jacqueline Barnard

A lovely walk with a nice mix of town and country. Only word of warning is that the car park is no longer free on a Sunday and cost me more than £14 for the day. There is plenty of off road parking in the area if you are familiar with it though.

4/10/2010 - Jeremy Platt

Loved Grantchester meadows and Cambridge city centre but too much walking along busy roads along the way.