Where Vikings, miners and walkers cross paths

If you have ever assumed Lincolnshire is a flat county, then think again.

The village of Normanby le Wold sits 550ft (168m) above sea level – the sort of climb it is impossible not to feel during a long hike.

We are following the Viking Way, a 149-mile path from Rutland to the Humber Estuary which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year.

To mark the anniversary, BBC Radio Lincolnshire and BBC Radio Humberside have been celebrating the people and places along the way.

Earlier this summer, we walked the southern half of the route. Now, we are completing the epic saga, with a two-day hike from Tealby to Barton-upon-Humber.

"The part from Acre House [a farm near Normanby] to Nettleton, is I think the most beautiful stretch of the Viking Way," says Keith Rylands-Bolton, a Lincolnshire access volunteer who helps maintain rights of way.

But this stunning landscape also contains echoes of an industrial past.

"What we're approaching now is the ironstone mines. They were worked until 1969 and used to employ up to about 180 people," Keith says.

"There were pit ponies and locomotives and they used to mine iron ore for the steel works at Scunthorpe."

There are gravestones for miners in nearby Claxby churchyard.

"It was quite dangerous work," adds Keith.

The miners are long gone and these days Keith is far more likely to spot wildlife such as red kites, buzzards and deer.

"I've also seen water voles here, which aren't very common at all," he adds.

We are among the latest people to walk the Viking Way, but Steve Ball, from Scunthorpe, was one of the very first.

He hiked from South Ferriby to Barnetby le Wold on the day the path opened in September 1976.

Steve, a member of the Ramblers Association and the Scunthorpe group of Ramblers, was 17 at the time.

"I don't think we really realised what it was going to build up to and turn into. It was just like another Sunday walk.

"The walk up out of Ferriby, up the hill past the quarry, was the hard bit and then the rest is farmland and open fields."

Steve has walked in locations all over the country, as well as abroad, but says Lincolnshire offers some of the best routes.

"We have a lot of public rights of way and it is good for walking around here."

Some people like the space and solitude of a long walk in the countryside, but others see it as a chance to chat.

As we head towards Barton-upon-Humber and the end of the Viking Way, we are joined by Gareth Morrison, Adrian Ellis and Norman Hornsby, members of the Good to Talk and Walk group.

Gareth set up the group as a positive way to improve people's mental health after being affected by the loss of close friends who took their own lives.

"Walking's free, you know what I mean?" he says. "People can come when they want, and everybody's welcome.

"It's walking, but it is also talking and sharing experiences. No one's judged."

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The group has been a success.

"Twenty-five people turned up the first week, the second week we got 45, then we had 75 one week.

"It's got it's got bigger and bigger."

Adrian lost his son to suicide five and a half years ago and now goes into schools and businesses to tell his story.

"I know how important it is to talk," he says.

"By talking, we can diffuse things, you know, before they get to sort of suicidal thoughts."

The Viking Way recognises the influence of Norse invaders on the east of England.

In Barton, we meet Julia Thompson, who has made it her mission in life to highlight the areas Viking heritage.

She runs Havelock's Kingdom, which celebrates Grimm the Viking and Havelock, Prince of Denmark, the legendary founders of Grimsby.

"It's a story that I think resonates across this region and all down the east coast, which is ultimately Viking territory.

"Here we are by the Humber, by this river that was like a motorway for the Vikings.

"It would have been filled with long ships and trading ships and fishing vessels, going up and down, up to Yorvik [York], down to Gainsborough and Lincoln.

"It would have been heaving with activity and seeing now the reeds, the mud flats, these long thin blank, long shallow banks, you can really imagine what it would have been like in the time of the Vikings."

Indeed, we are joined by a troop of "Vikings" – members of the Lindesige Saeweard reenactment group – to cheer us over the finish line.

It is a fitting way to end our own epic saga.

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