Fen Edge Trail – Landscape Heritage Walk

Fen Edge Trail landscape heritage walk in Cambridge from Castle Hill to the Sedgwick Museum.

This guided walk (3 miles easy walking, taking about 1.5 – 2 hours) celebrates the publication of the Walk Guide (available by June) for this part of the Trail that passes through the ‘fen edge’ city of Cambridge.

Starting high up on Castle Hill, you walk down through the heart of old Cambridge and traditional riverside grazing ‘fenland’, past historic buildings to finish at the world-famous Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. The hill is part of a ridge formed of c.100 million year old Marly Chalk topped by gravel from an old terrace of the Cam, whilst the rest of the walk takes you across younger river terraces, dating from the last few hundreds of thousands of years and over much younger (probably only hundreds of years old) river alluvium alongside the river. Your guide, Martin Evans, is a committee member of CGS, an alumnus of Cambridge University and a long-term resident of Cambridge. He will be pointing out man-made features of historical interest on the way (which Cambridge has in abundance!) as well as commenting on the geology beneath at relevant points. As well as learning about the landscape of the Cam Valley, past and present, you will discover how it related to development of the ancient town and finally the city. You will also see a variety of local and exotic building stones. The walk goes past several colleges and takes in the famous ‘backs’, including the iconic view across the river to King’s College Chapel, as well as the nationally-renowned Fitzwilliam Museum. Famous pubs and tea shops are not forgotten, either!

Free, everyone welcome, but numbers limited so you need to book by contacting us.