9. St Ives to Godmanchester

This walk was done in two halves on different days; St Ives to Houghton Mill and Houghton Mill to Godmanchester

From St Ives (described more fully in the Cambridgeshire; Hunts District > St Ives FP post) I follow the Ouse Valley Way; it is not close to the river for most of the way to Godmanchester, and I take a couple of minor diversions parallel to the Way to make the walk more interesting.

Houghton Mill is very interesting; owned by the National Trust, mills have been recorded on the site since 974 and the modern iteration is a working 18th-century watermill, with three floors of traditional machinery. Furthermore, water meadows alongside the River Great Ouse provide walking routes to St Ives, Huntingdon, and Godmanchester.  From here, the Ouse Valley Way follows the river for a while before diverting south past via the Godmanchester Nature Reserve, consisting of four lakes, which are former gravel pits.  I soon arrive in Godmanchester, a historic and picturesque town located on the south bank of the River Great Ouse one mile south of Huntingdon.Read more