Monarch's Way

The Monarch's Way is a 615-mile (990 km) long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Brighton. All of the footpath is waymarked. The waymark is yellow and shows a picture of the ship Surprise above the Prince of Wales three-point feathered crown which is superimposed on a Royal Oak tree (which is at Boscobel House) in black.

This route is shown as a series of green diamonds on the Ordnance Survey (smaller scale) 1:25000 maps and of red diamonds on its 1:50000 maps.

Route description

From its starting point at Worcester the route travels north to Boscobel and then south to Stratford upon Avon. It then continues south to Stow on the Wold before turning south west towards Bristol via Cirencester.

South of Bristol the route is almost directly south across the Mendip Hills to Wells, continues through Somerset almost to Yeovil and then south west to Charmouth in Dorset. There is then a short section along the Dorset coast before turning north again to Yeovil, before turning east and following much of the escarpment of Cranborne Chase, the Hampshire Downs and South Downs to Shoreham-by-Sea where it has a short extension to neighbouring Brighton and Hove, being its historic port and today a main yachting centre in Sussex.