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109-613: Wentwood ( Welsh : Coed Gwent ), in Monmouthshire , South Wales , is a forested area of hills, rising to 1,014 feet (309 m) above sea level. It is located to the northeast of, and partly within the boundaries of, the city of Newport . Wentwood is underlain by sandstones which are assigned to the Brownstones Formation of the Old Red Sandstone , a suite of sedimentary rocks laid down during

218-499: A bivvy bag or bothy bag in case an accident forces a prolonged, and possibly overnight halt. Other important items carried by hillwalkers are: food and water, an emergency whistle , torch/flashlight (and spare batteries), and first aid kit. And, where reception permits, a fully charged mobile phone is recommended. Hillwalkers are also advised to let someone know their route and estimated time of return or arrival. W. A. Poucher (1891–1988) wrote several hillwalking guide books, in

327-665: A mass trespass on Kinder Scout in Derbyshire. However, the Mountain Access Bill that was passed in 1939 was opposed by many walkers, including the organisation The Ramblers , who felt that it did not sufficiently protect their rights, and it was eventually repealed. The effort to improve access led after World War II to the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 , and in 1951 to

436-491: A stone circle , and a megalithic alignment on Gray Hill, Monmouthshire . In the Middle Ages , the woods belonged to the lordship of Chepstow and provided hunting preserves, and timber, fuel and pasturage for the tenants of nearby manors . The Royal Forest of Wentwood had its own forest laws and courts were held twice yearly at Forester's Oaks, above Wentwood Reservoir. These courts tried luckless locals charged with

545-441: A Welsh Language Scheme, which indicates its commitment to the equality of treatment principle. This is sent out in draft form for public consultation for a three-month period, whereupon comments on it may be incorporated into a final version. It requires the final approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board ( Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg ). Thereafter, the public body is charged with implementing and fulfilling its obligations under

654-594: A Welsh-language edge inscription was used on pound coins dated 1985, 1990 and 1995, which circulated in all parts of the UK prior to their 2017 withdrawal. The wording is Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad (Welsh for 'True am I to my country'), and derives from the national anthem of Wales, " Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau ". UK banknotes are in English only. Some shops employ bilingual signage. Welsh sometimes appears on product packaging or instructions. The UK government has ratified

763-663: A census glossary of terms to support the release of results from the census, including their definition of "main language" as referring to "first or preferred language" (though that wording was not in the census questionnaire itself). The wards in England with the most people giving Welsh as their main language were the Liverpool wards of Central and Greenbank ; and Oswestry South in Shropshire . The wards of Oswestry South (1.15%), Oswestry East (0.86%) and St Oswald (0.71%) had

872-405: A fair amount. 56 per cent of Welsh speakers speak the language daily, and 19 per cent speak the language weekly. The Welsh Government plans to increase the number of Welsh-language speakers to one million by 2050. Since 1980, the number of children attending Welsh-medium schools has increased, while the number going to Welsh bilingual and dual-medium schools has decreased. Welsh is considered

981-554: A journey subsequently recorded in his long autobiographical poem The Prelude (1850). His famous poem Tintern Abbey was inspired by a visit to the Wye Valley made during a walking tour of Wales in 1798 with his sister Dorothy Wordsworth . Wordsworth's friend Coleridge was another keen walker and in the autumn of 1799, he and Wordsworth undertook a three weeks tour of the Lake District. John Keats , who belonged to

1090-499: A map is also needed, and a compass may sometimes be needed on high moorland . There are usually places to camp on an extended trip, but accommodation of various kinds is available on many routes. However, occasionally paths are distant from settlements, so that camping is necessary. Water is not available on high downland paths, like the Ridgeway , though taps have been provided at some spots. Fifteen paths in England and Wales have

1199-598: A necessity for the iron industry and local ironworks . Henry Somerset sold 2,244 trees in Wentwood Forest, described as "the largest wood in England", in May 1902. The first conifer plantations were planted at Wentwood in 1880, and most of the native trees were felled during World War I to provide timber for props and supports for the trenches. When the area was replanted by the Forestry Commission in

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1308-399: A new language altogether. The argued dates for the period of "Primitive Welsh" are widely debated, with some historians' suggestions differing by hundreds of years. The next main period is Old Welsh ( Hen Gymraeg , 9th to 11th centuries); poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. As Germanic and Gaelic colonisation of Britain proceeded,

1417-444: A professional guide, or are self-guided; in these commercially organised tours, luggage is often transported between accommodation stops. In England and Wales the public has a legally protected right to "pass and repass" (i.e. walk) on footpaths , bridleways and other routes which have the status of a public right of way . Footpaths typically pass over private land, but if they are public rights of way they are public highways with

1526-401: A range of crimes within the forest boundaries, from sheep stealing to poaching deer . These crimes were taken so seriously that culprits were hanged from one of the two Forester's Oaks. The last offender dealt with in this severe way was hanged as recently as 1829. The edges of the wood were gradually cleared and felled away in the 16th century and 17th century by farmers. In 1678 Wentwood was

1635-581: A reciprocal responsibility to respect the interests of those who exercise their rights. The Scottish Outdoor Access Code provides detailed guidance on these responsibilities. Responsible access can be enjoyed over the majority of land in Scotland, including all uncultivated land such as hills, mountains, moorland, woods and forests. Access rights also apply to fields in which crops have not been sown or in which there are farm animals grazing; where crops are growing or have been sown access rights are restricted to

1744-681: A rope, such as the traverse of the Cuillin ridge, on the Scottish island of Skye . The British Mountaineering Council provides more information on this topic. Navigation and map-reading are essential hillwalking skills on high ground and mountains, due to the variability of British and Irish weather and the risk of rain, low cloud, fog or the onset of darkness. In some areas it is common for there to be no waymarked path to follow. In most areas walking boots are essential along with weatherproof clothing, spare warm clothes, and in mountainous areas

1853-479: A single discourse (known in linguistics as code-switching ). Welsh speakers are largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd , Conwy County Borough , Denbighshire , Anglesey , Carmarthenshire , north Pembrokeshire , Ceredigion , parts of Glamorgan , and north-west and extreme south-west Powys . However, first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. Welsh-speaking communities persisted well into

1962-836: A specified time. Many are organised as annual events, with hundreds of participants. In May and June, with longer daylight hours, challenge walks may be 40 or more miles. A few are overnight events, covering distances up to 100 miles. Well-known challenge walks include the Lyke Wake Walk and the Three Peaks Challenge in Yorkshire, and the Three Towers Hike in Berkshire. See also Long Distance Walkers Association . There are also some challenge walks aimed at children, young adults and youth groups such as

2071-516: Is a restored church in Wentwood. It is the largest ancient woodland in Wales and the ninth largest in the UK. The current wooded area is a remnant of a much larger ancient forest which once extended between the rivers Usk and Wye and which divided the old kingdom of Gwent into two – Gwent Uwchcoed and Iscoed , that is, above and below the wood. The area contains Bronze Age burial mounds,

2180-748: Is a word used specifically to refer to hill or mountain walking in Northern England , including the Lake District, Lancashire, especially the Forest of Bowland , and the Yorkshire Dales , where fell is a dialect word for high, uncultivated land. Popular locations for hillwalking include the Lake District, the Peak District , the Yorkshire Dales , Snowdonia , the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains , Wales, Dartmoor and

2289-602: Is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC in Welsh is available for download. There is also a Welsh-language radio station, BBC Radio Cymru , which was launched in 1977. Hillwalking Walking

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2398-420: Is evidenced by the dropping of final syllables from Brittonic: * bardos 'poet' became bardd , and * abona 'river' became afon . Though both Davies and Jackson cite minor changes in syllable structure and sounds as evidence for the creation of Old Welsh, Davies suggests it may be more appropriate to refer to this derivative language as Lingua Britannica rather than characterising it as

2507-491: Is more restricted than other parts of the UK, so that in many areas walkers can only enjoy the countryside because of the goodwill and tolerance of landowners. Permission has been obtained from all landowners across whose land the Waymarked Ways and Ulster Way traverse. Much of Northern Ireland's public land is accessible, e.g. Water Service and Forest Service land, as is land owned and managed by organisations such as

2616-444: Is potentially one of the most dangerous of mountaineering activities, and most guidebooks advise carrying a rope, especially on harder scrambles, which may be used for security on exposed sections, to assist less confident members of the party, or to facilitate retreat in case of difficulty. Scramblers need to know their limits and to turn back before getting into difficulties. Many easy scrambles in good weather become serious climbs if

2725-403: Is slowly being refilled by natural water capture, which is expected to take around 12 months. The area is also home to thousands of wildlife species. These include 75 species of bird, including turtle doves , nightjars and spotted flycatchers ; dormice ; Eurasian otters ; pipistrelle bats; and ancient woodland plants, such as wild daffodil , wood sorrel , and yellow pimpernel . In 2006,

2834-586: Is spoken by smaller numbers of people in Canada and the United States descended from Welsh immigrants, within their households (especially in Nova Scotia ). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric". The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave the Welsh language official status in Wales. Welsh and English are de jure official languages of

2943-521: Is used in the United Kingdom to describe a range of activity, from a walk in the park to trekking in the Alps . The word " hiking " is used in the UK, but less often than walking; the word rambling (akin to roam ) is also used, and the main organisation that supports walking is called The Ramblers . Walking in mountainous areas in the UK is called hillwalking , or in Northern England , including

3052-500: The 2016 Australian census , 1,688 people noted that they spoke Welsh. In the 2011 Canadian census , 3,885 people reported Welsh as their first language . According to the 2021 Canadian census , 1,130 people noted that Welsh was their mother tongue. The 2018 New Zealand census noted that 1,083 people in New Zealand spoke Welsh. The American Community Survey 2009–2013 noted that 2,235 people aged five years and over in

3161-410: The 2021 census , 7,349 people in England recorded Welsh to be their "main language". In the 2011 census, 1,189 people aged three and over in Scotland noted that Welsh was a language (other than English) that they used at home. It is believed that there are as many as 5,000 speakers of Patagonian Welsh . In response to the question 'Does the person speak a language other than English at home?' in

3270-683: The Battle of Dyrham , a military battle between the West Saxons and the Britons in 577 AD, which split the South Western British from direct overland contact with the Welsh. Four periods are identified in the history of Welsh, with rather indistinct boundaries: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period immediately following the language's emergence is sometimes referred to as Primitive Welsh, followed by

3379-498: The British Heart Foundation . WfH trains volunteers to lead free health walks from community venues such as libraries and GP surgeries. The scheme has trained more than 35,000 volunteers and there are more than 500 Walking for Health schemes across the UK, with thousands of people walking every week. The government agency responsible for promoting access to the countryside in England is Natural England . In Wales

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3488-517: The Chase Walk . In the UK the health benefits of walking are widely recognised. In 1995 Dr William Bird , a general practitioner, started the concept of "health walks" for his patients—regular, brisk walks undertaken to improve an individual's health. This led to the formation of the Walking for Health Initiative (WfH, formerly known as 'Walking the way to Health' or WHI) by Natural England and

3597-557: The Countryside Commission , one of the first being that for the Pennine Way by Tom Stephenson in the 1960s. Walks or hikes undertaken in upland country, moorland , and mountains, especially when they include climbing a summit are sometimes described as hillwalking or fellwalking in the United Kingdom. Though hillwalking can entail scrambling to reach a mountain summit, it is not mountaineering . Fellwalking

3706-485: The Devonian period . The beds dip gently to moderately in a south-easterly direction. It is the southernmost part of a range of hills formed by the relatively hard-wearing Brownstones sandstones which stretch in a rough arc northwards through eastern Monmouthshire , the broadly west-facing scarps of which are generally well wooded. There is a small number of houses in Wentwood, known as Wentwood hamlet. Gilgal Chapel

3815-538: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Welsh. The language has greatly increased its prominence since the creation of the television channel S4C in November 1982, which until digital switchover in 2010 broadcast 70 per cent of Channel 4's programming along with a majority of Welsh language shows during peak viewing hours. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol

3924-552: The Lake District and Yorkshire Dales , fellwalking, from the dialect word fell for high, uncultivated land. Mountain walking can sometimes involve scrambling . The idea of undertaking a walk through the countryside for pleasure developed in the 18th century, and arose because of changing attitudes to the landscape and nature, associated with the Romantic movement . In earlier times walking generally indicated poverty and

4033-681: The National Trust and the Woodland Trust . Northern Ireland shares the same legal system as England, including concepts about the ownership of land and public rights of way, but it has its own court structure, system of precedents and specific access legislation. Long-distance paths are created by linking public footpaths, other rights of way, and sometimes permissive paths, to form a continuous walking route. They are usually waymarked and guidebooks are available for most long-distance paths. Paths are generally well signposted, although

4142-519: The Old Welsh period – which is generally considered to stretch from the beginning of the 9th century to sometime during the 12th century. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, which in turn is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh. The word Welsh is a descendant, via Old English wealh, wielisc , of

4251-686: The Proto-Germanic word * Walhaz , which was derived from the name of the Celtic people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer to speakers of Celtic languages, and then indiscriminately to the people of the Western Roman Empire . In Old English the term went through semantic narrowing , coming to refer to either Britons in particular or, in some contexts, slaves. The plural form Wēalas evolved into

4360-491: The Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It has some similarities with backpacking , trekking , and also tramping in New Zealand, though it need not take place in remote places. In the late 20th century, with the proliferation of official and unofficial long-distance walking routes, some walkers now are more likely to follow a designated long-distance route than to plan their own route. Walking tours are also organised by commercial companies, and can have

4469-657: The Scottish Highlands . The mountains in Britain are modest in height, with Ben Nevis at 4,409 feet (1,344 m) the highest, but the unpredictably wide range of weather conditions, and often difficult terrain, can make walking in many areas challenging. Peak bagging provides a focus for the activities of many hillwalkers. The first of the many hill lists compiled for this purpose was the Munros —mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet (910 m)—which remains one of

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4578-640: The United States spoke Welsh at home. The highest number of those (255) lived in Florida . Sources: Calls for the Welsh language to be granted official status grew with the establishment of the nationalist political party Plaid Cymru in 1925, the establishment of the Welsh Language Society in 1962 and the rise of Welsh nationalism in the later 20th century. Of the six living Celtic languages (including two revived), Welsh has

4687-478: The Woodland Trust completed the purchase of some 352 hectares (nearly 900 acres) of Wentwood after a high-profile campaign, and plans a programme of conservation and restoration. In April 2007, an illegal rave event took place in Wentwood, with around 3,000 people before it was broken up. Vehicle access to much of the site is restricted, to protect the ancient monuments. Despite this, off-road vehicles have regularly caused problems, culminating in damage to one of

4796-401: The mass trespass of Kinder Scout had a far-reaching impact. The 1949 Countryside Act created the concept of designated Open Country , where access agreements were negotiated with landowners. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gave walkers a conditional right to access most areas of uncultivated land. In Scotland there is a traditional presumption of universal access to land. This

4905-542: The "hugely important role", adding, "I look forward to working with the Welsh Government and organisations in Wales in developing the new system of standards. I will look to build on the good work that has been done by the Welsh Language Board and others to strengthen the Welsh language and ensure that it continues to thrive." First Minister Carwyn Jones said that Huws would act as a champion for

5014-473: The 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion , although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The Bible translations into Welsh helped maintain

5123-596: The 1880s identified a small part of Shropshire as still then speaking Welsh, with the "Celtic Border" passing from Llanymynech through Oswestry to Chirk . The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of Britain has not yet been counted for statistical purposes. In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel S4C published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living in England, about 50,000 of them in

5232-472: The 1920s saw a steady reduction in the working hours of the British worker as well as a rise in real wages and a decreasing cost of travel. In the early 1930s, a rise in unemployment led to more leisure time, leading to a surge in walking known as a "hiking craze". There was also a high level of media coverage which, according to Ann Holt, was comparable to modern media hype. Frank Trentmann has suggested that

5341-571: The 1950s and 1960s, the original broadleaved deciduous trees were largely replaced with non-native conifers , damaging the woodland habitat. More recently, broadleaved trees have been allowed to grow back. Wentwood and its surrounding areas are popular with hillwalking and mountain biking enthusiasts and the Wentwood Reservoir, opened in 1904, was a centre for trout fishing prior to being drained in 2019 for refurbishment works by utility company Dŵyr Cymru (Welsh Water). The reservoir

5450-425: The 1960s, which describe, in detail, the various routes up specific mountains, along with the precautions needed and other practical information useful to walkers. The guides cover Wales, Peak District , Scotland, Isle of Skye and the Lake District. Even more detailed guides were written by Alfred Wainwright (1907–1991) but these are mainly restricted to the Lake District and environs. His main series of seven books

5559-536: The 1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it covers the private sector, although some organisations, notably banks and some railway companies, provide some of their information in Welsh. On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales. On 9 February 2011 this measure, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 ,

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5668-486: The Assembly which confirms the official status of the Welsh language; which creates a strong advocate for Welsh speakers and will improve the quality and quantity of services available through the medium of Welsh. I believe that everyone who wants to access services in the Welsh language should be able to do so, and that is what this government has worked towards. This legislation is an important and historic step forward for

5777-517: The Brittonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in northern England, speaking Cumbric, and those in the southwest, speaking what would become Cornish , so the languages diverged. Both the works of Aneirin ( Canu Aneirin , c.  600 ) and the Book of Taliesin ( Canu Taliesin ) were written during this era. Middle Welsh ( Cymraeg Canol ) is the label attached to the Welsh of

5886-682: The Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons . Classified as Insular Celtic , the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth . During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, thus evolving into Welsh and

5995-598: The Federation of Rambling Clubs, was formed in London in 1905 and was heavily patronised by the peerage . In the 1930s, walking reached new levels of popularity as a pastime: on any weekend some ten thousand ramblers could be expected on the moors of the Peak District, while in the country at large there were over half a million ramblers. A convergence of economic factors played their part in this boom in numbers:

6104-550: The Greater London area. The Welsh Language Board , on the basis of an analysis of the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the 2011 census , 8,248 people in England gave Welsh in answer to the question "What is your main language?" The Office for National Statistics subsequently published

6213-578: The Lake District, as well as numerous routes in Scotland such as the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe . Many such routes include a "bad step" where the scrambling suddenly becomes much more serious. In Britain, the term "mountaineering" tends to be reserved for technical climbing on mountains, or for serious domestic hillwalking, especially in winter, with additional equipment such as ice axe and crampons, or for routes requiring rock-climbing skills and

6322-598: The Ramblers launched their "Putting London on the Map" in 2010 with the aim of getting "the same legal protection for paths in the capital as already exists for footpaths elsewhere in England and Wales. Currently, legislation allows the Inner London boroughs to choose to produce definitive maps if they wish, but none do so". Walkers long campaigned for the right to roam , or access privately owned uncultivated land. In 1932

6431-438: The UK. The Scottish Mountaineering Club are, through the experience and knowledge of their members, the largest publishers of guidebooks to climbing and walking in Scotland. Walking is a popular recreational activity in London, despite traffic congestion. There are many areas that provide space for interesting walks, including commons, parks, canals, and disused railway tracks. This includes Wimbledon Common , Hampstead Heath ,

6540-496: The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, all new signs have Welsh displayed first. There have been incidents of one of the languages being vandalised, which may be considered a hate crime . Since 2000, the teaching of Welsh has been compulsory in all schools in Wales up to age 16; this has had an effect in stabilising and reversing the decline in the language. Text on UK coins tends to be in English and Latin. However,

6649-704: The Welsh Language Scheme. The list of other public bodies which have to prepare Schemes could be added to by initially the Secretary of State for Wales, from 1993 to 1997, by way of statutory instrument . Subsequent to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales in 1997, the Government Minister responsible for the Welsh language can and has passed statutory instruments naming public bodies who have to prepare Schemes. Neither

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6758-597: The Welsh Parliament, the Senedd , with Welsh being the only de jure official language in any part of the United Kingdom, with English being merely de facto official. According to the 2021 census , the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 538,300 (17.8%) and nearly three quarters of the population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Other estimates suggest that 862,700 people (28.0%) aged three or older in Wales could speak Welsh in March 2024. Almost half of all Welsh speakers consider themselves fluent, while 20 per cent are able to speak

6867-445: The Welsh language, though some had concerns over her appointment: Plaid Cymru spokeswoman Bethan Jenkins said, "I have concerns about the transition from Meri Huws's role from the Welsh Language Board to the language commissioner, and I will be asking the Welsh government how this will be successfully managed. We must be sure that there is no conflict of interest, and that the Welsh Language Commissioner can demonstrate how she will offer

6976-426: The Welsh of the 16th century, but they are similar enough for a fluent Welsh speaker to have little trouble understanding it. During the Modern Welsh period, there has been a decline in the popularity of the Welsh language: the number of Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. During industrialisation in the late 19th century, immigrants from England led to

7085-429: The Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 per cent in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire for the first time. However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 per cent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh. The Annual Population Survey (APS) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that as of March 2024, approximately 862,700, or 28.0 per cent of

7194-403: The ancestor of Cumbric as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or "Early Poets" – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the Hen Ogledd , raising further questions about the dating of

7303-408: The census. In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.4 per cent (443,800) of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in March 2024, with 5.4 per cent (165,500) speaking it weekly and 6.5 per cent (201,200) less often. Approximately 1.7 per cent (51,700) reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak the language, with the remaining 72.0 per cent of

7412-448: The comparable body is the Countryside Council for Wales , and in Scotland Scottish Natural Heritage . The Ramblers (Britain's Walking Charity) promotes the interests of walkers in Great Britain and provides information for its members and others. Local Ramblers volunteers organise hundreds of group-led walks every week, all across Britain. These are primarily for members; non-members are welcomed as guests for two or three walks. Among

7521-491: The confines of the city by rambling about in the countryside. However, the land in England, particularly around the urban areas of Manchester and Sheffield , was privately owned and trespass was illegal. Rambling clubs soon sprang up in the north and began politically campaigning for the legal ' right to roam '. One of the first such clubs, was 'Sunday Tramps' founded by Sir Frederick Pollock , George Croom Robertson and Leslie Stephen in 1879. The first national grouping,

7630-414: The course of the 20th century this monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census. Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English. However, many Welsh-speaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within

7739-429: The courts have been asked to intervene. In Gloag v. Perth and Kinross Council the sheriff allowed about 5.7 hectares (14 acres) surrounding Kinfauns Castle , a property belonging to Ann Gloag , to be excluded from access rights. In Snowie v Stirling Council and the Ramblers' Association the courts allowed about 5.3 hectares (13 acres) to be excluded, but refused permission for a wider area to be excluded and required

7848-539: The creation of the first national park in the UK, the Peak District National Park . The establishment of this and similar national parks helped to improve access for all outdoors enthusiasts. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 considerably extended the right to roam in England and Wales. A walking tour is an extended walk in the countryside, undertaken by an individual or group and lasting several days. Walking tours have their origin in

7957-479: The decline in Welsh speakers particularly in the South Wales Valleys. Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, for example through education. Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history; however, by 1911, it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 per cent of the population. While this decline continued over

8066-604: The eight Royal Parks , Hampton Court Park and Epping Forest . In recent years access to canals and rivers, including the Regent's Canal , and the River Thames has been greatly improved, and as well a number of long-distance walking routes have been created that link green spaces. The following are some of long-distance routes in London: Challenge walks are strenuous walks by a defined route to be completed in

8175-491: The following decades, the language did not die out. The smallest number of speakers was recorded in 1981 with 503,000 although the lowest percentage was recorded in the most recent census in 2021 at 17.8 per cent. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in Welsh-medium education . The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 per cent of

8284-529: The forest belonged to them, and rioted when 50 of Somerset's armed men arrived to carry away the felled wood. Many stands of substantial mature Welsh Oaks were felled to meet the demand for stout oak heartwoods in Royal Navy battleships and men o' war of the Napoleonic era of the 19th century, such as HMS Victory and others, but the heart of the forest remained preserved for charcoal production,

8393-457: The hands for extra support on the crags. It is an ambiguous term that lies somewhere between walking and rock climbing , and many easy climbs are sometimes referred to as difficult scrambles. A distinction can be made by defining any ascent as a climb, when hands are used to hold body weight, rather than just for balance. While much of the enjoyment of scrambling depends on the freedom from technical apparatus, unroped scrambling in exposed situations

8502-469: The highest number of native speakers who use the language on a daily basis, and it is the Celtic language which is considered the least endangered by UNESCO . The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated equally in the public sector, as far as is reasonable and practicable. Each public body is required to prepare for approval

8611-476: The highest percentage of residents giving Welsh as their main language. The census also revealed that 3,528 wards in England, or 46% of the total number, contained at least one resident whose main language is Welsh. In terms of the regions of England , North West England (1,945), London (1,310) and the West Midlands (1,265) had the highest number of people noting Welsh as their main language. According to

8720-524: The landowner to keep the driveway unlocked to allow access. In addition to the general right of access the public also have the right to use any defined route over which the public has been able to pass unhindered for at least 20 years. However, local authorities are not required to maintain and signpost public rights of way as they are in England and Wales. Northern Ireland has very few public rights of way and access to land in Northern Ireland

8829-506: The language, its speakers and for the nation." The measure was not welcomed warmly by all supporters: Bethan Williams, chairman of the Welsh Language Society, gave a mixed response to the move, saying, "Through this measure we have won official status for the language and that has been warmly welcomed. But there was a core principle missing in the law passed by the Assembly before Christmas. It doesn't give language rights to

8938-402: The least endangered Celtic language by UNESCO . The language of the Welsh developed from the language of Britons . The emergence of Welsh was not instantaneous and clearly identifiable. Instead, the shift occurred over a long period, with some historians claiming that it had happened by as late as the 9th century , with a watershed moment being that proposed by linguist Kenneth H. Jackson ,

9047-421: The margins of those fields. Access rights do not apply to land on which there is a building, plant or machinery. Where that building is a house or other dwelling (e.g. a static caravan ) the land surrounding it is also excluded in order to provide reasonable measures of privacy. The issue of how much land surrounding a building is required to provide "reasonable measures of privacy" has been the main issue on which

9156-673: The material and language in which it was originally composed. This discretion stems from the fact that Cumbric was widely believed to have been the language used in Hen Ogledd. An 8th-century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns. Janet Davies proposed that the origins of the Welsh language were much less definite; in The Welsh Language: A History , she proposes that Welsh may have been around even earlier than 600 AD. This

9265-622: The modern period across the border in England. Archenfield was still Welsh enough in the time of Elizabeth I for the Bishop of Hereford to be made responsible, together with the four Welsh bishops, for the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken there in the first half of the 19th century, and churchwardens' notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860. Alexander John Ellis in

9374-452: The most popular. The United Kingdom offers a wide variety of ascents, from gentle rolling lowland hills to some very exposed routes in the moorlands and mountains. The term climbing is used for the activity of tackling the more technically difficult ways of getting up hills involving rock climbing while hillwalking refers to relatively easier routes. However, many hillwalkers become proficient in scrambling , an activity involving use of

9483-609: The name for their territory, Wales. The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in Continental Europe (e.g. Walloons , Valaisans , Vlachs / Wallachians , and Włosi , the Polish name for Italians) have a similar etymology. The Welsh term for the language, Cymraeg , descends from the Brythonic word combrogi , meaning 'compatriots' or 'fellow countrymen'. Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic ,

9592-689: The next generation of Romantic poets began, in June 1818, a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland, and the Lake District with his friend Charles Armitage Brown. More and more people undertook walking tours through the 19th century, of which the most famous is probably Robert Louis Stevenson 's journey through the Cévennes in France with a donkey, recorded in his Travels with a Donkey (1879). Stevenson also published in 1876 his famous essay "Walking Tours". The subgenre of travel writing produced many classics in

9701-831: The organisations that promote the interest of walkers are: the Ramblers Association , the British Mountaineering Council , the Mountaineering Council of Scotland , The Online Fellwalking Club, and the Long Distance Walkers Association , which assists users of long-distance trails and challenge walkers. Organisations which provide overnight accommodation for walkers include the Youth Hostels Association in England and Wales,

9810-627: The other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Linguist Kenneth H. Jackson has suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around AD 550, and labelled the period between then and about AD 800 "Primitive Welsh". This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and the Hen Ogledd ('Old North') – the Brittonic-speaking areas of what are now northern England and southern Scotland – and therefore may have been

9919-473: The people of Wales in every aspect of their lives. Despite that, an amendment to that effect was supported by 18 Assembly Members from three different parties, and that was a significant step forward." On 5 October 2011, Meri Huws , Chair of the Welsh Language Board , was appointed the new Welsh Language Commissioner. She released a statement that she was "delighted" to have been appointed to

10028-471: The population not being able to speak it. The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to report a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2022–2023 suggesting that 18 per cent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 per cent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability. Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh. Over

10137-502: The population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language. Children and young people aged three to 15 years old were more likely to report that they could speak Welsh than any other age group (48.4 per cent, 241,300). Around 1,001,500 people, or 32.5 per cent, reported that they could understand spoken Welsh. 24.7 per cent (759,200) could read and 22.2 per cent (684,500) could write in Welsh. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by

10246-407: The population of Wales spoke Welsh, compared with 20.8 per cent in the 2001 census , and 18.5 per cent in the 1991 census . Since 2001, however, the number of Welsh speakers has declined in both the 2011 and 2021 censuses to about 538,300 or 17.8 per cent in 2021, lower than 1991, although it is still higher in absolute terms. The 2011 census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in

10355-755: The prehistoric burial mounds over the Christmas holidays of 2019. Welsh language Welsh ( Cymraeg [kəmˈraːiɡ] or y Gymraeg [ə ɡəmˈraːiɡ] ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people . Welsh is spoken natively in Wales , by some in England , and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province , Argentina ). It

10464-522: The public does not have a legal right to walk, but where the landowner has granted permission for them to walk. Definitive maps of public rights of way have been compiled for all of England and Wales as a result of Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 , except the 12 Inner London boroughs which, along with the City of London , were not covered by the Act. To protect the existing rights of way in London

10573-542: The required fresh approach to this new role." Huws started her role as the Welsh Language Commissioner on 1 April 2012. Local councils and the Senedd use Welsh, issuing Welsh versions of their literature, to varying degrees. Road signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Prior to 2016, the choice of which language to display first was the responsibility of the local council. Since then, as part of

10682-506: The same protection in law as other highways, such as trunk roads . Public rights of way originated in common law , but are now regulated by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 . These rights have occasionally resulted in conflicts between walkers and landowners. The rights and obligations of farmers who cultivate crops in fields crossed by public footpaths are now specified in the law. Walkers can also use permissive paths , where

10791-418: The scene of riots led by Nathan Rogers and Edward Kemys against the actions of Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort who, as Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire and Governor of Chepstow Castle , enclosed some 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of the forest for his own use, and began to fell trees for use in his ironworks at Tintern . The tenants of the area, including Rogers, claimed that the ancient rights to

10900-436: The status of National Trails , which attract government financial support. Twenty-nine paths in Scotland have the similar status of Scotland's Great Trails . The first long-distance path was the Pennine Way , which was proposed by Tom Stephenson in 1935, and finally opened in 1965. Other paths include South Downs Way and Offa's Dyke Path . Major guides to these long-distance footpaths in Britain are provided by HMSO for

11009-459: The subsequent 20th century. An early American example of a book that describes an extended walking tour is naturalist John Muir 's A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf (1916), a posthumous published account of a long botanising walk, undertaken in 1867. Due to industrialisation in England, people began to migrate to the cities where living standards were often cramped and unsanitary. They would escape

11118-535: The surge in walkers made it "the numerically strongest part of the new romanticism in interwar Britain". With these increasing numbers came increasingly strong demands for walkers rights. Access to Mountains bills , that would have legislated the public's right to roam across some private land, were periodically presented to Parliament from 1884 to 1932 without success. Mass rallies and trespasses were held in support of this cause, including an annual access to mountains demonstration at Winnats Pass and, most famously,

11227-471: The tour of the lakes, verified by his own repeated observations. To this end he included various "stations" or viewpoints around the lakes, from which tourists would be encouraged to appreciate the views in terms of their aesthetic qualities. Published in 1778 the book was a major success. Another famous early exponent of walking for pleasure was the English poet William Wordsworth . In 1790 he embarked on an extended tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany,

11336-526: The use of Welsh in daily life, and standardised spelling. The New Testament was translated by William Salesbury in 1567, and the complete Bible by William Morgan in 1588. Modern Welsh is subdivided into Early Modern Welsh and Late Modern Welsh. Early Modern Welsh ran from the 15th century through to the end of the 16th century, and the Late Modern Welsh period roughly dates from the 16th century onwards. Contemporary Welsh differs greatly from

11445-469: The weather deteriorates. Black ice or verglas is a particular problem in cold weather, and mist or fog can disorientate scramblers very quickly. Many of the world's mountaintops may be reached by walking or scrambling up their least steep side. In Great Britain ridge routes which involve some scrambling are especially popular, including Crib Goch on Snowdon , the north ridge of Tryfan , Striding Edge on Helvellyn and Sharp Edge on Blencathra in

11554-454: Was also associated with vagrancy. Thomas West , an English priest, popularised the idea of walking for pleasure in his guide to the Lake District of 1778. In the introduction he wrote that he aimed to encourage the taste of visiting the lakes by furnishing the traveller with a Guide; and for that purpose, the writer has here collected and laid before him, all the select stations and points of view, noticed by those authors who have last made

11663-402: Was first published between 1955 and 1966. Both authors describe the major paths, their starting points and the peaks where they end, with important landmarks along each route. Neither are entirely comprehensive. More recently Mark Richards has written numerous walking guides, especially for the Lake District, for the publisher Cicerone Press , who are now the leading publisher of walking guides in

11772-473: Was formally codified into Scots law under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 , which grants everyone the right to be on most land and inland water for recreation, education, and going from place to place, providing they act responsibly. The basis of access rights in Scotland is one of shared responsibilities, in that those exercising such rights have to act responsibly, whilst landowners and managers have

11881-518: Was passed and received Royal Assent, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales. The measure: The measure required public bodies and some private companies to provide services in Welsh. The Welsh government's Minister for Heritage at the time, Alun Ffred Jones , said, "The Welsh language is a source of great pride for the people of Wales, whether they speak it or not, and I am delighted that this measure has now become law. I am very proud to have steered legislation through

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