St Margarets Circular Walk

This walk leads along ancient tracks and green lanes through some very quiet, rolling East Hertfordshire countryside defined by wheat fields and woods, in-between extensive stretches along the Ash, Rib and Lea rivers. Cold Christmas hamlet and a haunted, ruined church are passed just before lunch in Wadesmill.
Long parts of the afternoon route are spent in the quiet scenic Ash valley, before passing through Amwell Nature Reserve, a bird watcher’s paradise. The final stretch leads along the Lea Navigation back to St. Margarets.

Stile Count: 1; Arable Field Crossings: 450 metres.

Outbound and return route are never far from each other, sometimes as little as 150 metres. See the route map for some obvious and easy-to-follow shortcuts.
Described in the text are the following:
Shortcut I cuts out about half the distance to leave a figure-of-eight walk of 12.6 km (7.8 mi), while also cutting ascent/descent by 168m. This is rated 1/10.
Shortcut II cuts out the outer loop of this walk to leave an hourglass-shaped walk of 19.5 km (12.2 mi), while also cutting ascent/descent by 66m, this is rated 3/10.

An Extension from Wadesmill adds 1.6 km (1.0 mi) and 12m ascent/descent.

Buses to Ware or Hertford train stations (one or two stops further from London on the same line) are available from the lunch pubs in Wadesmill (Line 331; hourly Mon-Sat) and Wareside (Lines M3 and M4; with 2 buses in the afternoon between them, Mon-Sat).

Saturday Walkers' Club: Take the train closest to 9.45 hours, if walking the full walk, and the one closest to 10.15 hours for the shortest version.

Long Walk
Ermines Café & Stores 39 Ermine Street, Thundridge, Herts, SG12 0SY (01920 745 042). Ermines is located 10.6 km (6.6 mi) into the main walk.
The Feathers Inn 49 Cambridge Road, Wadesmill, Herts, SG12 0TN (01920 462 606). The Feathers Inn and Hotel is located 10.9 km (6.8 mi) into the main walk.

Short Walk
Chequers Inn Ware Road, Wareside, Ware, Herts, SG12 7QY (01920 467 010). The Chequers Inn is located 12.9 km (8.0 mi) into the shortcut version of the walk and 6.7 km (4.1 mi) from the end of all walk options.

The Jolly Fisherman 8 Station Road, Stanstead St. Margarets, Ware, Herts, SG12 8DH (01920 870 125). A McMullen’s pub with outdoor seating by the Lea Navigation.
Khunnai 73 High Street, Stanstead Abbots, Ware, Herts, SG12 8AA (01920 870 032).
The Oak 36 High Street, Stanstead Abbotts, Ware, Herts, SG12 8AG (01920 877 294).
The Red Lion 1 High Street, Stanstead Abbots, Ware, Herts, SG12 8AA (01920 410 056).

After the walk, please leave a comment, it really helps. Thanks!

You can also upload photos to the SWC Group on Flickr (upload your photos) and videos to Youtube. This walk's tags are:

National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Dec-24 Thomas G