A Warwickshire Walker with a Wandering Spirit
Hello — I'm Tony Anderson, and for over 20 years I've been exploring the magnificent mountains, rolling hills, and ancient footpaths of the British Isles. Based near the beautiful village of Bishops Tachbrook in Warwickshire, I've been fortunate enough to walk in some of the most spectacular landscapes these islands have to offer — from the remote ridgelines of the Scottish Highlands to the coastal paths of Pembrokeshire, and from the limestone valleys of the Yorkshire Dales to the quiet field paths on my own doorstep.
Walking, for me, has never just been about the miles or the summits — though I've accumulated rather a lot of both. It's about the quality of a morning light on a hillside, the satisfaction of finding your way across open moorland with map and compass, the sense of history that settles over you on an ancient drovers' road, and the particular pleasure of a well-earned cold beer at the end of a long day out. It's a pursuit that rewards patience, curiosity, and a willingness to get your boots muddy.
"Some of the most brilliant local walks are rarely documented online. That's why I created this site — to share my personal collection of routes, and to shine a spotlight on the hidden gems right here in Warwickshire and Bishops Tachbrook."
Filling the Gaps on the Map
Like many walkers, I've long relied on specialist UK walking websites and apps for inspiration and route information. These resources are invaluable — but over the years I've felt a recurring gap, particularly when searching for walks closer to home. The major upland areas — the Lake District, Snowdonia, the Peak District — are covered comprehensively. But venture into the quieter corners of the country, and the pickings become thin.
As a Warwickshire lad, I've always known that some of the finest local walking — the meadow paths along the Avon, the bridleways across the Feldon, the footpaths threading between the villages around Bishops Tachbrook — simply don't appear on the popular walking platforms. They are walked and loved by local people, passed on by word of mouth, but rarely written down in a form that a visitor or a new resident could follow.
That's what drove me to build this site. Tony's Walks is my attempt to document the routes I've walked over two decades — both the grand mountain days and the quiet local strolls — in enough detail that anyone can follow them with confidence. I hope it adds something genuine and useful to the wider walking community.
Real Walks, Honestly Described
Every walk you'll find on this site is a route I have personally walked. The descriptions are written from experience, not assembled from mapping data. That means they include the things that other sources sometimes leave out: the tricky stile that's easy to miss, the section of path that floods in wet weather, the navigational decision point that catches people out, and — yes — the occasional wrong turn that I've made myself and decided to leave in.
The GPS tracks you can download here are my actual recorded routes, complete with the small diversions and minor detours that inevitably happen when you're out on the hill feeling your way across unfamiliar ground. You'll spot these on the Outdooractive maps — little wobbles in the line where I went slightly off-piste before finding my way back. I've kept them in deliberately. They're honest, and they're real, and they might just save you from making the same small mistake.
Every track on this site is one I have personally walked — not computer-generated, not interpolated from OS data. The routes include the minor detours I made along the way, visible on the Outdooractive maps. What you download is exactly what I walked. No more, no less.
A Life Spent Collecting Summits
Alongside the walking, I've developed a keen interest in peak bagging — the deeply satisfying pursuit of working through the various classification lists of British hills and mountains. It began with the Wainwrights, Alfred Wainwright's beloved 214 Lake District fells, which I completed in full and which remain close to my heart. From there the lists multiplied, as they inevitably do for anyone who catches the bagging bug.
I've now completed all 214 Wainwrights and am well advanced through the Hewitts — the hills of England and Wales over 2,000ft with at least 30 metres of prominence — with 236 ticked off to date. Beyond the Lakes and the English hills, I've been working my way through the Scottish Munros, the Welsh 3,000ft peaks, and the County Tops of both England and the wider British Isles. There is, as any experienced bagger will tell you, always another list waiting.
Bishops Tachbrook & Warwickshire
For all the grand mountain days in Scotland and Wales and the Lakes, some of my most treasured walks are the ones closest to home. Bishops Tachbrook is a beautiful village on the southern edge of Leamington Spa — a place of rolling pastoral countryside, ancient field systems, and footpaths that have been trodden for centuries. It sits in the heart of the Feldon, the southern half of Warwickshire that lies south of the River Avon, a quietly lovely landscape that most visitors to the county drive straight through without stopping.
I've made it my business to walk every footpath, bridleway, and byway within reach of the village, and to document them properly so that others — visitors, new residents, families looking for an afternoon out — can enjoy them as I have. Warwickshire may not have the dramatic scenery of the uplands, but it has a charm and a history all of its own, and it deserves to be walked and appreciated.