
Each trail takes about 60 to 90 minutes to complete and takes you from a central point at The Forum to a section of the medieval walls, passing significant medieval sites along the way. You can join trails together to form a longer walk. You can also walk the whole circumference of the walls but be warned that this will involve some busy roads.
Work started on the walls in 1294 and they were completed in the mid-14th century. They formed the longest circuit of urban defences in Britain, eclipsing even those of London. Today only fragments remain but, using these walking trails, you will discover that much of Norwich’s medieval past is still visible.
Norwich’s walls were made of flint, the local building material, with brick and stone reinforcements. The walls loomed some seven meters high and had a deep outer ditch making the walls even more impressive from the outside. Twelve gates and 40 towers controlled the main thoroughfares into Norwich, as well as the pair of Boom Towers on the river controlling access by water. The gates were demolished in the late C18th early C19th to make way for increasing road traffic.
Each walk can be downloaded as a PDF to print at home, or as a mobile-friendly version via the links below.