At A Glance:
- Circular walk (with shorter options).
- 7.25 miles (about 11km).
- Broadland views.
- Largely flat, easy walking. One road to cross.
- Not all paths are accessible for pushchairs/wheelchairs.
- Interesting historical, architectural and lots of nature.
- Dog friendly (some parts require dogs to be on leads).
If you’re up for a decent walk, in terms of distance and time, that offers largely easy walking and stunning Norfolk Broads views, this is lovely.
Parking at How Hill Nature Reserve (donation suggested: £3), we picked up the route and headed towards the River Ant where you follow a path beside the river for some way. Here we saw lots of lovely flora and fauna (the dragonflies seemed to get progressively larger as we went on). The historical ‘Hathor’ was moored near the start of our walk, one of only a handful surviving Norfolk pleasure wherries to be found on the Norfolk Broads. With a lavish Egyption-themed interior, Hathor was commissioned by the Colman family and launched in 1905. We’d been on board during a previous Norfolk Heritage Open Days and it was an experience I’d recommend.
We also saw the Wherry Albion, an 125-year old black-sailed Wherry as it made its way along the river. We kept just ahead of it for a chunk of the walk before it veered off elsewhere.
Crossing the road at Ludham Bridge (where there are also accessible toilets and a shop with provisions and ice cream), we headed towards St Benet’s Abbey, the evocative remains of the only monastic site in England that was not officially closed down by King Henry VIII.
A disused 18th-century windmill built around the ancient gatehouse punctures the sweeping landscape, and tales tell of a ghostly double-crossing monk hanging from the archway.
We ventured into the windmill to discover carved graffiti dating back decades and more but didn’t explore the whole site (now under the care of Norfolk Archeological Trust) as the walk was already a long one and we didn’t want to add too much extra time.
After the Abbey we walked across farmland – flat, easy walking, with no-one else in sight, before approaching the vicinity of Ludham. Here, I’m not sure if we deviated from the proper route, but after emerging from a path that crossed a field, there were the backs of houses alongside the path and a couple of them clearly housed quite excitable (and frankly scary-sounding) dogs. One appeared to hurl itself against the fence as we passed. Not the kind of excitement you really need after walking for 6 miles.
Demon dogs evaded, it was a pleasant, easy walk back to How Hill where our car was parked. Again, if time allowed there was more to explore here, including the wonderfully named ‘Toad Hole Cottage’, which offers hot drinks and cakes from the Natural Rise horse box in the garden (new for summer 2025 apparently).
In total the walk took us just over 2 hours 45 minutes and we covered 11km. This was a really nice route with lots to see but also plenty of space and fresh air that’s a good tonic for the mind in today’s unpredictable world. You’d need to be sufficiently fit to complete it, but by no means a professional athlete and you can amble at a pace the suit, or stop for a picnic or packed lunch along the way. As the map suggests, you can do shorter stretches of it going there and back the same way.
It’s a lovely day spent seeing some of the wonderful sights of the stunning Norfolk Broads.
Looking for walks in Norfolk? Check out more of our tried and tested walks.
