Ruth Livingstone
My book: Walking the English Coast
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Winfield’s Award
Killer Cows: Cattle Safety
Cattle charged at walkers – this could have been prevented by a simple fence
Incident number: 1229Response ID 329,262,000 Date: 16/4/26 Location: Preston Bagot, Warwickshire. Grid reference 176644 2 people, no dog Report: “Walking around the edge of a field the cows charged. I had to climb over a barbed wire fence while my husband ran around the corner of the field.It would be great to see special fencing […]
Charged at by a cow in Derbyshire (Pattern of previously aggressive livestock behaviour in this area)
Incident number: 1228Response ID 329,163,280 Date: 8/4/26 Location ///farm.prepare.character, Between Unstone Green and Dronfield,Derbyshire 2 People, with 2 dogs on lead Incident Summary: “On 8th April 2026, while traversing the established public footpath southwest from Highgate Lane, our party (two adults and two canine companions on leads) encountered an aggressive bovine. The animal emerged from […]
Ensuring Safety on a Walking Holiday: Cattle Management
We all have a right to walk safely along footpaths, and we can’t predict which cattle will be aggressive.
Tag Archives: walking
Stage 45 Dover to Folkestone to Hythe
This is the best day of walking, ever. I start from Dover seafront. Looking out, across the little beach, through the mouth of the harbour, I can see the outline of France. It is clear and close. You could sail across and be there is a few minutes, or so it seems.
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Stage 44. St Margaret’s to Dover
The ‘path’ turns out to consist of footholds in a grassy bank. There is nowhere to rest. The slope is too steep to sit down. I am scrambling on all fours – looking for footholds and hand holds. The steep drop below, and the glimpses of bright sea even further below, add to a vertiginous sense of anxiety. I am reminded of skiing and that black slope moment of terror when you realise that you don’t want to go on, but you know you can’t stop.
Stage 43. Sandwich to Deal to St Margaret’s at Cliffe
This morning is warm and the sky clear, with a low haze. I leave Sandwich and head through a pleasant park, crossing the river and walking along the bank towards Sandwich Marina. Joggers pass me. A couple are out walking … Continue reading
Stage 41. Birchington to Margate to North Foreland
Margate on a sizzling hot Good Friday. I am intrigued by the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital and pay a visit the Turner Contemporary. Hamish Fulton says ‘Walking is an art form in its own right, it does not have to be a lesser form of land art.’ Now, that is my kind of artist!
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Stage 40. Whitstable to Herne Bay to Birchington
Perhaps it is hunger, but I begin to have paranoid fancies. I imagine the pub full and no space to sit down. I imagine it has stopped serving food (it is now nearly 3pm). I imagine there are signs saying ‘no boots allowed’.
Stage 39. Faversham to Whitstable
I meet a man who is walking along the narrrow top of the wall, hands outstrectched for balance.
“I think you are forty years too old for that,” I say, smiling.
“I am letting my inner child out,” he replies.
And why not?
Stage 38. Teynham to Faversham
The light, the water, the mist, the stillness, the clarity of the near distance, the obscurity of the far horizon – so magical. I have never experienced anything like this before. Then I notice a strange sound. It is gun fire. Continue reading
Stage 37. Sittingbourne to Teynham
When I reach the sea wall, before me stretches a lovely vista of gleaming mud flats and an expanse of blue water beyond. Although I am still in the shelter of the Isle of Sheppy, I am nearing the open sea again. I feel a surge of blissful happiness. Progress at last and the sea is ahead of me.
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Stage 36. Upchurch to Sittingbourne
Passing a building site, workmen in yellow jackets nod and say hello. If they think it is odd to see a middle aged woman walking on a train track in the middle of nowhere, they are too polite to say so.
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Stage 35. Gillingham to Upchurch
I meet a cat with weird eyes, avoid a real tramp and take some spooky snaps of Kingsnorth Power Station, before heading off to the sewerage works. Later, I catch a glimpse of a man skinning and gutting rabbit with no sign of a knife … really?
Ruth's Coastal Walk (UK) 