Monarch's Way

This page is a little different from the others on this site in that, at the time of writing we have no intention of completing all of the Monarch's Way, or indeed or walking a long stretch of it. However the amount of the path that we have walked has reached a level where I felt it was appropriate to include a separate description. The Monarch's Way starts in Worcester and ends in Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex. Google Maps identifies a possible walking route of 143 miles between these two towns and whilst I wouldn't want to walk along the A44 for mile after mile, there must be a good route rather shorter than the total distance of the Monarch's Way which is usually described as either 615 or 625 miles. This is because the Monarch's Way meanders like no other path I know, on both the large and more local scale.

So why is this? The route purports to follow the route taken King Charles II after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. So from Worcester the path heads (in a wiggling fashion!) to Boscobel in Shropshire, where Charles hid first in an oak tree and then in a priesthole in Boscobel House. However then Charles (and so the path) headed south, so the path does likewise, through the Cotswolds and eventually to Charnmouth on the Dorset coast; Charles had hoped to take a boat from here to France, but it didn't happen. So he - and the path - finally head(ed) along the South Downs to Sussex. Charles stayed in Arundel (shown) spent his last night in England in the village of Bramber and finally departed from England on board a boat called "The Surprise" which sailed from Shoreham. This took him to France where he spent nine years in exile.

That explains the large scale wanderings of the Monarch's Way. The smaller scale meanderings mean that, for whatever reason, the path passes through lots of villages and towns. This is in contrast with many long-distance paths which do all that they can to avoid human habitation, which is quite reasonable, but not terribly helpful for long-distance walkers who are looking for somewhere to stay. Thus, having encountered the Monarch's Way on previous visits to the Cotswolds and when walking the South West Coast Path, it first came into its own in 2017 when we used it for several stretches of several miles to take us from the South Downs Way into a village (including Bramber, shown in the distance) to hotel or B&B and then out the other side the following morning.

Similarly, we used the Monarch's Way to link us from the Heart of England Way to Hidcot and to Moreton-in-Marsh in September 2017. In addition, the Monarch's Way shares some of its route with these and other paths (e.g. the Clarendon Way, walked in 2021). The Monarch's Way is quite well signposted with pretty yellow signs showing the Boscobel Oak, the ship "The Surprise" and a royal crown, and the route is shown on Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps (too many to mention). The Monarch's Way Association also has its own website from which you can buy guidebooks and which has a map showing the route in all its meandering glory.