The best walks and hikes around Norwich

Exploring Norwich’s nooks and crannies

The city’s market square sits at its heart and is a good place to begin walks around Norwich’s centre. It’s a place where modern and medieval architecture rub shoulders, from ancient sites, like the glorious 11th-century cathedral, to 21st-century creations, such as the Forum which replaced the old library in 2001.

A stroll along Elm Hill, a cobbled street that oozes olde worlde charm, will make you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time. Its coffee and tea houses and traditional bookshops are a great excuse to pause and rest the legs. Norwich has a proud brewing history too and boasts many pubs and bars in which to unwind after a day roaming the streets.

Norwich’s natural sights

One of the largest greenspaces in the city is Mousehold Heath local nature reserve, which offers some of the finest hikes around Norwich. A 184-acre (88 ha) area of woodland, heath and open space, the reserve is inhabited by all manner of wildlife, including woodpeckers, sparrowhawks, kestrels, lizards, butterflies and dragonflies. Early spring is a great time to explore here, when the woodland is at its most colourful and scores of frogs convene around the Vinegar Pond to mate.

In the west, the Brutalist architecture of Norwich’s University of East Anglia (UEA) is balanced by its lovely green spaces and the UEA Broad, a gorgeous lake. There are myriad trails here on either side of the meandering River Yare.

Broad appeal

Some of the best hiking routes around Norwich follow the River Yare east, out of the city and into the Broads National Park, a magical water-land of gentle rivers, lakes, feathery reeds and tangled woodland. Although not officially a national park — the Broads Authority adopted the title for marketing purposes — the region enjoys many of the same protections and is a sublime place to explore.

The Broads’ most western extent reaches to the edge of Norwich’s city limits, where Whitlingham Country Park and Whitlingham Great Broad await, boasting a huge range of flora and fauna. Notable species include otters, bats and voles, and there’s all manner of birdlife too.