Seventh heaven

But nowadays, some people find it difficult to look at them and plan a guilt-free holiday. If you are worried, not just about the financial cost, but also about the damage caused to the planet by flying all over the world, you are not alone.

Each year, Elaine Steane and her friends, all keen members of the Oxfordshire Ramblers, make a habit of planning a long-distance walk in England to cheer themselves up and give them a project to follow during the winter.

Twelve years ago, they discovered that they had done all the long-distance footpaths near their homes, so they ended up creating their own - The Seven Shires Way. It is one of the most irregular, haphazard walks you can imagine, following a county boundary which grew up by chance 1,000 years ago, when the shire system was imposed on a landscape already divided into furlong blocks in early field systems.

The Seven Shires Way was conceived round the table with a bottle of wine and a few friends. Elaine said: "I had the idea of doing a round-Oxfordshire walk, but one of my friends said it would mean walking around Reading, so it went on a back-burner for a while. But then the following autumn we decided to do it."

To most people, the idea of creating your own 234-mile footpath route would be daunting, but Elaine said: "It was quite easy. We had all the maps, so we just followed existing rights of way, as near to the county boundary as possible."

But in fact, it took her seven years to produce her book The Seven Shires Way. The name came from the fact that the route criss-crosses the boundary, taking the walker into seven shires from Gloucestershire to Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire.

The book is incredibly detailed, with Ordnance Survey maps and impeccable directions, so that walkers have no excuse for getting lost. They also finish the 234 miles knowing a lot more about Oxfordshire's landscape and buildings, and how they were created, as well as its fauna, flora and literary links. It is divided into 21 sections, and last winter I tackled it with my husband, doing one section most weekends. By December, we had learnt how to recognise the county boundary by its ancient native trees, including oaks and yews.

Elaine said: "The boundary includes some of the oldest hedgerows in Britain. They are often ecologically diverse, filled with native species - a rich mix of flowering shrubs indicating great age. Sometimes there is a ditch or mound, and sometimes the boundary is a green lane."

If you were writing the CV of a long-distance footpath creator, Elaine would fit the bill. The daughter of a cartographer and geographer, she grew up with an enduring love of maps, as well as being able to identify glacial moraines and U-shaped valleys.

She trained as a nurse specialising in the prevention of heart disease and stroke. In her work on the Human M.O.T.' project, promoting walking across the countryside was among the recommendations for boosting both physical and mental well-being.

A member of the Council to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Oxfordshire Ramblers Association, she has an Advanced Diploma in Environmental Conservation from Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.

Her husband John Steane is an expert on historic buildings, and his knowledge contributed to the sections on Stonor Park, Ashdown House and Buscot Park, as well as humbler dwellings with architectural peculiarities.

For myself and husband George, the biggest challenge of the walk was getting up early on dark winter weekends to catch buses to places I had never heard of. But the rewards were immeasurable.

I had already visited Edgehill, the Civil War battlefield site in Warwickshire, but if it hadn't been for the Seven Shires Way, I would never have discovered the marlstone scarp slope further west, with heart-stopping views over the so-called Vale of the Red Horse.

Then there were the ironstone villages of North Oxfordshire, followed by a trudge through the Cherwell Valley, then spectacular views from Muswell Hill of the clay vale of Aylesbury and the distant blue of the Chiltern Hills - luring us towards them until we finally reached the dramatic beech-covered escarpment. The trees, we learnt from the book, were originally planted for the furniture industry, and we also learnt to look out for the telltale signs of ancient charcoal burning.

After a glorious descent into Henley we were on familiar ground, following the Thames and then the empty chalk downs behind the Ridgeway. The poor soil means there are few settlements there, and we struggled to reach the start of our walk by public transport, resorting to taking our bikes in the car and riding to the start point of the more remote sections.

Everyone knows White Horse Hill, but we went to much lesser-known but equally beautiful viewpoints, including Wiltshire downland villages where we saw magnificent examples of strip lynchets, signs of medieval farming methods. In the Cotswolds we were on more well-trodden territory, but there were more discoveries, including Kate Moss at a pub in Kelmscott, and Kate Winslett.

Our triumphant finish, with a celebration tea in Moreton-in-Marsh, on the May Bank Holiday, was an unforgettable way to mark the arrival of summer.

In the seven years since Elaine finished the book, hundreds of people have completed the walk, including Oxford Fieldpaths Society, as well as the Ramblers. Charity walkers have included a six-year-old black Labrador, Branson - named after the entrepreneur - and his deaf owner, Antony Sabin, who raised £10,000 for the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

She was interested in my discovery that using public transport to travel for pleasure, rather than as a commuter, makes you feel like a visitor to your own country - surely a valuable preparation for a future without cheap air travel. She said: "Our motive is always to discover what's on our doorstep, and make the most of it, rather than travelling for miles and harming the environment."

Her latest challenge - a new long-distance walk following Roman roads from the former settlements of Alchester, near Bicester, to Silchester, near Reading - will be completed later this year.

The Seven Shires Way: A 234-mile Walk around the county boundary of Oxfordshire is published by Reardon at £12.99. It is available online at Amazon and in local bookshops