Event Details

Walking Home: A Celebration of Arrival is an informal walking event that celebrates William and Dorothy Wordsworths’ 70 mile walk across from Sockburn in Yorkshire to their new home at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, arriving on Friday December 20th 1799.

Walking Home: A Celebration of Arrival is an informal walking event run by The Wordsworth Centre, Lancaster University in partnership with The Wordsworth Trust. It celebrates William and Dorothy Wordsworths’ 70 mile walk across from Sockburn in Yorkshire to their new home at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, arriving on Friday December 20th 1799. Walking Home also marks the launch of Wordsworth 250, a year-long celebration of William Wordsworth's 250th birthday in 2020.

Walking Home consists of an easy four-mile walk for the general public, from Ambleside to Grasmere, following the route often taken by the Wordsworths, as outlined below. The walk will be divided into four main sections, each exploring the full route that William and Dorothy took from Sockburn to Grasmere over 4 days. There will be readings, discussions and creative activities along the way for those participating. These are led by Professors Simon Bainbridge and Sally Bushell, Dr. Becca Hutcheon (Lancaster University) and Dr. Louise Ann Wilson (artist and researcher) as well as poet, Paul Farley.

On arrival at Dove Cottage we will be welcomed by the Director of The Wordsworth Trust (Michael McGregor), given a chance to view the key manuscript relating to the journey (the Wordsworths' letter to Coleridge on Christmas Day 1799) and celebrate the Wordsworths’ home-coming with the reading of a specially-commissioned poem by Paul Farley.