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!! HOT OFF THE PRESS !!

In association with Berkhamsted Castle Trust’s ‘SAVE CASTLE FIELDS’ campaign, I am delighted to announce my imminent walking challenge: ‘ROUTE 1066’. Starting out on Monday 2 November I will be following, more or less, the 360-mile path that William the Conqueror took 960 years ago, pretty much to the month. I will be picking up the Normans’ trail at Pevensey Bay on the south coast of England near Eastbourne in Sussex, then on to Battle, where William’s forces defeated the Anglo-Saxon army led by King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, and then towards London, before tracing the wide arc of the Conqueror’s path around the south-eastern counties of England as he laid waste to the settlements and countryside and cut off the supply lines to London. This strategy eventually forced the English to surrender, at Berkhamsted, in early December 1066, and William rode to London and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day. The invaders’ journey through the counties of the South East lasted a total of just under three months from their arrival on English soil at Pevensey Bay towards the end of September 1066, but I shall be attempting the walk in just 24 days: I hope not to face the threat of arrows and spears, nor the risk of dysentery, that William endured – but he did have a horse and an army, whereas I shall be travelling on foot, solo and self-supporting. And the November weather, 96 decades on, is likely to be just as wet!

So why am I doing ROUTE 1066? Well, my LETJOG motto is ‘Walking for Fun, Challenge and Charity’, and I hope, through my daily Blogs whilst on the trail, to evidence the first two of these three elements. But it is principally the third component that has goaded me into exerting myself on this occasion. Berkhamsted Castle Trust was set up in 2017, and its main challenge over the last year or so has been to launch and pursue the ‘SAVE CASTLE FIELDS’ campaign.

The fields in question comprise 30 acres immediately to the east of Berkhamsted Castle that, despite their huge historical and cultural importance, remain threatened by building development. In September 2025 the Trust took advantage of a philanthropic loan of £500,000 to purchase the site, but the loan has to be repaid by Summer 2027.

My ROUTE 1066 Walk in support of the campaign to SAVE CASTLE FIELDS will be self-supporting – not just in the sense that I will be walking solo and carrying a backpack, but also as regards financing. I will be covering the costs of all my accommodation, food, etc for the 24 days, as a part of my personal contribution to this important cultural cause. And, as ever, I am inviting all family, friends and followers to join me on my journey via my daily Blog. There is no charge for this of course, and accessing the posts is easy: just click on the above BLOG tab and scroll down to click on the headings: and you can even sign up to receive emails each time I publish a post!

I do not have a JustGiving (or other) fundraising page, but I would encourage everyone to support the ‘SAVE CASTLE FIELDS’ campaign by sponsoring a 3×3-metre square of the site simply by clicking on the following link:

THANK YOU ALL FOR SUPPORTING MY ROUTE 1066 WALK, AND FOR HELPING TO PRESERVE THE LEGACY OF CASTLE FIELDS FOR ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS

AND IN OTHER NEWS

If you have been following my recent Blogs from earlier in the year then you will know that Rachel and I are also in the middle of an another walk – the 184-mile Thames Path that we are undertaking in daily stages, as we follow the river from its source in the Cotswolds towards London and down to the river’s North Sea estuary. We have recently reached Reading – just past the halfway point of the trek – and once we resume our Thames Path ramble I will be posting periodic updates via the BLOG tab above.

About Me

I’m Nick Heath, an active ‘60-something’ who loves trekking, nordic walking, and just being in the outdoors. This passion has led me into some ambitious endurance events and to undertake some wonderful journeys on foot around the UK and overseas.

Based in west Hertfordshire, my trekking experiences over the last decade, aside from LETJOG 2021 and my other charity walks outlined above, comprise many of the UK’s long-distance paths, including the Pennine Way, Offa’s Dyke, the Ridgeway, and some significant overseas walks such as climbing Mount Toubkal in Morocco and completing the Gokyo Lakes and Everest Base Camp trek in Nepal.

I have enjoyed trekking since my teenage years, and in 2008 I took up nordic walking (with poles), initially as therapy for a lower back condition. In recent years I have participated in a number of endurance and competitive nordic walking events, including the 2019 Nordic Walking UK annual marathon around Purbeck, where I somehow managed to stride to second place!

My solo and unsupported LETJOG 2021 (Land’s End to John O’Groats) nordic walk in early Summer 2021 was kindly sponsored by a great many generous friends, family and followers of my Blog. In total we raised nearly £13,000 for three wonderful charities in the healthcare sector, namely Mind, Parkinson’s UK, and The Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted. More details of my LETJOG walk can be seen on the LETJOG tab, and on my BLOG tab, above.

The next year, in April 2022, I completed the C2C walk alongside my old schoolfriend Rob Stubbs, raising over £3,500 for Parkinson’s UK. Again, our journey can be followed on the C2C tab, and on my BLOG tab, above.

In September 2022 I joined the Ride & Stride Team of ten friends to complete the North Coast 500 route around the northern coast of Scotland. Together we raised over £13,000 for Cancer Research UK, Mind and Parkinson’s UK. More details are on the R&S and BLOG tabs above.

My most ambitious escapade for 2023 was my LETJOG Peaks challenge, completed over six months between March and September, that entailed climbing to the top of all of the Counties of England (50 in total), whilst raising £700 for the British Red Cross’ Ukraine Crisis Appeal. All told, my ‘County Tops’ walks totalled 609 miles, with nearly 70,000 vertical feet (21,225 metres) of climb. You can look back on all of these ascents on the PEAKS and BLOG tabs above.

And in November 2023 I completed the 87-mile Ridgeway trail from Overton Hill in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire, in just under 98.5 hours – again my journey can be followed via the BLOG tab above.

My challenge for 2024 was to cover the 675 miles of walking between the eastern and western mainland extremities of the British Isles, namely Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk and Dunmore Head on the Dingle Peninsula in western Ireland. I completed this solo and unsupported walk in 40 days, raising £3,300 for Parkinson’s UK in the process. You can find further details on the E2W tab and follow my journey on the BLOG tab above.

My challenge for 2025 was the Camino Francés across northern Spain in April/May, a 32-day trek that I undertook solo and unsupported. Having said that, I was joined along most of the route by dozens of other pilgrims, all heading purposefully for Santiago de Compostela in the north-western province of Galicia.

Smitten by the Camino bug I flew out to Porto in May for amother two-week pilgrimage along the Camino Portugués, finishing as before at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Like my 2025 walk, I undertook this Camino solo and carrying my own pack, whilst booking accommodation a day or two ahead. My pilgrimage walks have been for my own personal benefit rather than as sponsored challenges, although further fundraising remains a future objective.

And in August this year I was joined by my wife Rachel, and by our friends Karen and George, on the 68-mile Camino Inglés from Reading Abbey to Southampton Docks – which we completed in five fine days and one rather wet one!

As for the future, I am always looking out for new walking challenges, so watch this space! Meanwhile please feel free to follow me on Instagram: @ nickletjog where I post photos of my regular walks in the Chilterns and further afield.