‘I love the mix on this walk…..the history, the landscape, especially the river’

The route: ‘from revolutionary science to riverside meadows’

4.1 miles (6.6 km) Walking guide time 2hrs 40 mins plus stops

This walk, on the southern limit of the Fen Edge, takes you from the centre of Cambridge, one of England’s most iconic cities, through characteristic water meadows to the riverside village of Fen Ditton. Starting at the famous Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences and with a short visit to the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology, you pass the buildings that have witnessed some of the most remarkable work in the history of science from Darwin’s studies to Crick and Watson’s discovery of DNA.

Both museums hold internationally important specimens and are worth extended visits themselves and the Sedgwick has published a Geology Trail featuring many of the building stones in the city.

One of the other highlights of this walk to Fen Ditton is the journey along the River Cam. Rising from chalk springs in the hills to the south of the city, this important river flows north to join the River Ouse on its course to the Wash. The river has been the life-blood of Cambridge since its first settlements, providing food and transport and acting as a military boundary. Trade with the outside world via the North Sea allowed this ’fenland town’ to grow and flourish. Today the wharves and jetties have been replaced with beautiful gardens, punt stations and boathouses but the river is just as vital to the life of the city as ever, winding between historic college buildings and famous for its rowing and punting.