This walk came from the In Their Footsteps app from the South Downs National Park. The app is made in conjunction with historic venues and has a series of guides for walks across the South Downs. Each of the walks has a map, a text guide and audio clips along the walk to tell you more about what you are seeing and walking through.

We headed for Selborne for an early start before the day got too hot and arrived at the car park in the village for 7:15am. The first part of the walk was a fairly steep route up through Selborne Common from the car park taking the zig-zag path that Gilbert White and his brother had cut into the hillside. At the top the route took us along the top edge of Selborne Hangar, a woodland of mostly beech trees. When there were gaps in the trees we could see through to Selborne and Gilbert White's House. Nova seemed to have a great time exploring and played in the leaves.

It then took us down Gracious Street to the sunken lane - Old Alton Road which is a fascinating path cut into the landscape by many centuries of walking and the sides of the path seem to be held back by the roots of the trees, it was interesting to hear on the audio guide how in the past this flooded and in the winter, icicles formed from the trees.

After this the route took us across meadows, past ponds to Coombe woods, another peaceful shaded woodland where we could enjoy listening to the sounds of the birds along our way. Finally we headed back up to the church and into Selborne to finish the route at Gilbert White's house.

Overall this was a lovely walk with a good variety of things to see - I thoroughly enjoyed it and was glad we made the decision to head out first thing before it got too hot as some of the parts would likely have been tough going later in the day! It was also a great walk for dogs with sections where Nova could have a good explore off-lead as well as those where there are lifestock where she had to be on lead.