Step into the world of England’s greatest playwright by walking Shakespeare’s Way, a trail that follows closely a route Shakespeare may have taken between his home town of Stratford-upon-Avon and London, the city where he spent his productive years. Spanning approximately 146 miles, it takes you through rolling countryside and historic market towns and along the banks of the River Thames.

From the Birthplace, this ‘journey of imagination’ passes through Blenheim Park (a World Heritage Site), Oxford, Stonor, Marlow, Cookham and Burnham Beeches, continues on the Grand Union Canal and the Thames, and ends at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. The Canal and then the Thames Path provide the route into central London.

It is one of the Macmillan Way routes, devised by Peter Titchmarsh and opened in April 2006, with the optional opportunity to raise funds for Shakespeare Hospice. The route is shown on OS maps from its start up to the intersection with the Grand Union Canal Walk; sections of other waymarked paths are used in parts, and from Marlow the Thames is followed to Cookham, where the Beeches Way is used to reach the Grand Union Canal at Iver.