What’s so different about these walks?
Many published pub walks cover circular routes set in rural areas, often featuring just one pub. The scenery might be spectacular, but you may have to drive miles to get to the start/finish point, usually the car park of what is often the only pub featured in the walk.
But these ‘calorie neutral and carbon friendly’ multi-pub walks in the old coalfields of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire are different. You leave the car at home and use public transport to get to alternative start and finish points and, if you don’t want to do the whole walk, you can return home by public transport at one of a number of intermediate points. On each walk there are several good-ale pubs, fairly evenly spaced, allowing you to enjoy a number of drinks responsibly whilst ‘burning off’ the calories, en route, and helping you to arrive home none the worse for wear. What’s more, because of the history and geography of this part of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, you’ll be able to explore and enjoy a mixture of scenic wildlife areas and important industrial heritage sites.
What’s so special about these areas of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire?
The old coalfields of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire played a vital role in the birth of the industrial revolution. Rich in iron ore, limestone, coal, streams and rivers, the area saw a rapid increase in the number of blast furnaces, collieries and mills in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The local villages grew in size, and the need to transport goods and workers accelerated the development of interconnected canals, tramways and railways.
Most of these old industrial sites have been reclaimed, many as public amenities in the form of parks, wildlife reserves, and multi-user routes, but many reminders of our industrial heritage, and earlier history, remain. Today, the excellent local public transport services, and a network of interconnecting footpaths and cycle routes, ensure that open countryside and wildlife are never far away from heritage sites of the old mining and mill towns. Add in a thriving brewing trade, and many real-ale pubs and micropubs, it’s not surprising that the area provides much for those who want to combine a good walk responsibly with a few good pints.
Can these walks really be described as ‘calorie neutral and carbon friendly’?
Well, okay, if you really want to reduce your calorie and carbon footprint, then just stay at home, don’t walk and don’t drink at all! But, if you do like walking and drinking good ale, then these ‘calorie neutral and carbon friendly’ walks provide a novel and responsible way of combining both activities. The ‘carbon friendly’ bit is easy: leave the car at home and get to, and from, your start and finish points by public transport. The ‘calorie neutral’ bit is a little more complicated, but it’s not rocket science. The number of calories you burn when you walk depends upon how fast you walk and how far, how heavy you are, and how hilly the route. You also have to take into account the number of calories you’d burn anyway, whether you walk or not. If you are a man of average weight, walking briskly about three miles an hour over undulating ground, you’d burn some 85 calories a mile over and above what you’d burn anyway. The equivalent for a woman of average weight would be about 70 calories a mile.
So, using these figures, a man would need to cover just over two miles to ‘burn off’ the 180 calories in a pint of beer with 4% alcohol by volume. The equivalent for a woman would be just over two and a half miles.
