Mappiman's Real Ale Walks: 14/04/24 - Centenary Way Summary

Length of Heart of England Way - 100 Miles

Amount walked on Circular Walks - 193.5
Geocaches Found - 66
Stages Completed In - 26
Start - Kingsbury Water Park - 20/03/21
Finish - Lower Quinton - 14/04/2024

The Centenary Way is a 100 mile Long Distance Path in Warwickshire, created to commemorate 100 years of the counties existence. Stephen Cross, former Mayor of Warwick, takes his blueprint for the Heart of England Way and produces a guide book that splits the route into a series of circular day walks.

Providing inspiration for monthly walks, I completed over 26 stages.

The Guide Book

Highlights

Several stages were accessible by public transport. This led to big days out in Nuneaton, Kenilworth, Warwick and Leamington. Walking could be combined easily with Good Beer Guide Ticking. There were some decent walking stretches too - Burton Dassett Hills and Edge Hill providing the best walks.

Lowlights

Poor paths in places - especially in the North of the County. Overgrown and sometimes missing. I can't blame the path for the 2024 mud, but there was a sea of it towards the end. Several walks were deadly dull. Even as we edged into the Cotswolds.

The real killer was HS2 - causting rerouting and misery on a couple of stages - none worse than Ufton. To be fair to the guide author, he did he best to warn us, with potential diversions detailed in a book published in 2017.

Alas, in summary, it was nowhere near as pretty or satisfying a walk as the Millennium Way and Heart of England Way, which have followed similar themes.

The Stages

Stage 1 - Kinsgbury Water Park

Stage 2 - Shustoke

Stage 3 - Furnace End

Stage 4 - Birchley Heath

Stage 5 - Nuneaton

Stage 6 - Bermuda

Stage 7 - Sutton Stop

Stage 8 - Ansty

Stage 9 - Brinklow

Stage 10 - Brandon

Stage 11 - Ryton-on-Dunsmore

Stage 12 - Bubbenhall