Our listeners are taking over Ramblings and guiding Clare on every walk of this new series. Today’s adventure is led by three women who all qualified as mountain leaders in their 50s. Linda Moran, Angie Jaleel and Bev England explain why they wanted to take their love of the outdoors to a professional level by gaining qualifications later in life. Linda wrote to Ramblings and asked Clare to join them on one of their adventures, so - on a July afternoon, not long after the intense heatwave - they set off on a challenging six-mile hike around Malham in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Starting at Malham Car Park, they walked towards the dramatic, natural amphitheatre that is Malham Cove before ascending the steps that rise alongside it. After a steep climb they arrived at the top and - as they were making their way across the gappy, wobbly limestone pavement - watched a natural drama unfold as crows failed to guard their nest against a persistent and hungry peregrine falcon.

From there they rambled east along part of the Dales High Way, taking in Gordale Scar (full of climbers scaling the almost sheer cliffs) before completing the loop via Janet’s Foss waterfall.

Grid Ref for Malham Car Park: SD 899 627

Presenter: Clare Balding

Mike Nelhams has recently retired as Head Gardener of the beautiful gardens on Tresco but remains very active and involved in island life. He meets Clare off the boat from St Marys and takes her on a tour of the island explaining the appeal of life on one of the most beautiful islands in Britain. They walk through the gardens observing the red squirrels which were introduced ten years ago on the request of Prince Charles who owns the island leasing it to the Dorrien-Smith family. They are responsible for the upkeep of the gardens as well as managing life on the island where there's a thriving tourist industry that sees visitors returning year after year.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Starting her walk overlooking the harbour outside the Star Castle Hotel once a Civil War fortress Clare hikes around the largest of the Isles of Scilly in the company of Will Wagstaff and Lucy McRobert. Will came to the island in 1985 and began giving walking tours which he has done ever since pointing out the variety of flora and fauna encouraged by the mild climate. Lucy McRobert came to St Marys three years ago with her keen birdwatching husband and infant daughter. Lucy is now just as keen a birder and like every islander has different roles including taking care of stranded seal pups each winter. As they take in the diverse landscapes of this small island they discuss the appeal of life there.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Today’s walk starts at Happy Valley in the Mourne Mountains about thirty minutes inland from the coast of County Down. Clare is walking with Kelly Hargie who, for very personal reasons, launched Wild Women Events as a way of encouraging female walkers to explore the countryside of Northern Ireland. Kelly has long understood that escaping into the wild helped her greatly with postnatal depression and recovery from injury and she wanted to share this discovery with like-minded women.

This is the second of two back-to-back hikes in the Mournes, recorded on the same day. The first walk was broadcast last week and began – in great contrast to today’s route – at Bloody Bridge.

Grid Ref for their starting point: SB 379 857

Presenter: Clare Balding

In the first of two back-to-back hikes in the Mourne Mountains Clare walks from Bloody Bridge near Newcastle, on the coast of County Down, up into the hills. Led by Alex Rose of the Northern Ireland Young Walkers, they begin at a stone sculpture which – from a certain angle – look like a human face in profile. This is the Smuggler’s Head which helps to tell the story of the ‘Brandy Pad’ a local smuggler’s route. It’s a history-rich Ramblings which continues by following the Bloody Bridge River, so called because bodies thrown into the water, following a massacre during the 1641 rebellion, turned it blood red. Soon they’re climbing steeply up to one of the Mourne summits, Chimney Rock, partly following an old quarry-rail track used to bring granite down to sea-level.

The Northern Ireland Young Walkers were formed in 2005 as a way of getting more youthful hikers out and about. It’s such a successful club that people don’t like to leave, so the age range has widened as the members have aged.

The second Mournes ramble – recorded on the same day - will be broadcast next in the series. It starts at a place whose name couldn’t be more of a contrast: Happy Valley.

Grid Ref for Bloody Bridge Car Park: SB472822

Presenter: Clare Balding

Having grown up in Cornwall Jane Johnson has a deep love of the landscape of the south west. She and her husband Abdel take Clare on a coastal walk along steep rocky footpaths that offer breathtaking views of the Cornish coastline around the Lizard to Lands End. It's a favourite walk for the couple who often see dolphins, whales and basking sharks along the way. They tell Clare the story of their extraordinary meeting in the foothills of the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco and how a near death experience for Jane while climbing led to a love affair with a Berber restaurant owner who tried to rescue her. Seventeen years on the couple live mainly in Cornwall but try to divide their time between there and Morocco. Jane is a writer and publisher while Abdel is now developing his artwork.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

In the first of a new series, Clare is in Derry-Londonderry to meet the celebrated children’s author and artist, Oliver Jeffers. As part of a free nationwide arts project called Unboxed, he’s created a 10 kilometre sculpture trail, designed as a scale model of the solar system. It starts at Bay Road Park and runs alongside the River Foyle. The trail, ‘Our Place in Space’, is there until 22 May 2022 before moving to Belfast, Cambridge, and the North Down Coastal Path.

Oliver says he’s a ‘pretty serious rambler’: he walked everywhere when he lived in New York City, and once led three-day hikes in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.

Explaining his inspiration for the project, he says: “If we could look back at Earth from the vastness of the solar system, what would we feel? Wouldn’t squabbles look stupid from Saturn? Wouldn’t violence seem senseless from Venus? Forget about ‘Us’ and ‘Them’, from the perspective of Pluto, it’s just US!”

Oliver Jeffers collaborated with the Nerve Centre and Professor Stephen Smartt of Queen’s University Belfast to design the trail which has its own free interactive App to download.

Grid Ref for their starting point: NV 611 818

Presenter: Clare Balding

Colleen Thirkell and her husband Richard have been walking stretches of the Saxon Shore Way with their friends Bev and John. In autumn 2020 Colleen fell seriously ill with a rare reaction to a flu jab. She was unable to walk and spent months in hospital. But she has slowly recovered and part of her rehabilitation has been to get out walking with her friends again. They invited Clare to walk one of the final stages of the 168 mile route they have been walking together when time has allowed. The ramble takes them from the village of Hamstreet to Appledore on the edge or Romney Marsh. Along the way they talk about their love of walking together as a group and how Colleen's recovery was aided by the thought of being outdoors with friends and family again.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

The walk begins on the shingle at Winchelsea Beach - the possible site of the drowned city that was engulfed by waves in the 11th century. Crossing the marshy fields inland Clare and Matthew climb the steep hill to the gate of the rebuilt and fortified town of Winchelsea that was once a thriving wine port. They walk through the town passing open wine cellars as they go. The town was built on a grid system and as with similar towns in France and Italy it became known as a medieval Manhattan. Trade with European ports in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal was vibrant and it was said that in the Middle Ages Winchelsea was close to becoming the wine capital of Europe. Fierce fighting took place between its citizens and bands of marauding pirates from across the Channel to protects its wealth and prosperity.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE joins Clare for a walk around one of her favourite woodlands in London. Starting in Dulwich College where her mother worked in the laundry and later her son attended, Floella and husband Keith head off into the woods on a rainy March day. Their walk takes them up from the College past the Golf range and into the woods where parakeets dart among the trees shrieking and providing a dash of bright emerald green on a grey day. Along the way Floella talks about her life and all her achievements.

Producer: Maggie Ayre