The Athelstan Pilgrim Way, a new 100-mile trail in Wiltshire, recalls the reign of England's first king 1,100 years after his crowning.

If you were asked to name a famous English monarch, maybe you'd pick Richard the Lionheart, Henry VIII or Queen Elizabeth II. Few would consider Æthelstan, Alfred the Great's grandson, but he was the first to rule over a united England.

England's first true king (whose anglicised name is Athelstan) was buried in Malmesbury, a hilltop town surrounded by rural Wiltshire's rolling countryside, where he's never been forgotten. Now, the new Athelstan Pilgrim Way – a 100-mile-long hiking and cycling trail beginning at Malmesbury Abbey – sets out to remember him, 1,100 years after his crowning.

Launched in June 2024, the route links 36 churches in North Wiltshire, and is reviving the king's lost legacy. It was created as part of the wider Athelstan 1,100 celebrations, which included archaeological digs, history lectures and an 11-day pilgrimage in August to Kingston-upon-Thames, approximately 100 miles away, where Æthelstan was officially crowned in 925.

The Athelstan Pilgrim Way doesn't go to Kingston-upon-Thames but is instead divided into six circular walks and two long cycling loops that traverse Malmesbury's surrounding countryside. The first stage starts in Malmesbury Abbey, where I find Æthelstan's tomb beneath high Norman arches, and later the ruler's namesake museum.

"I'd never really heard of Æthelstan until I moved here from Manchester," Anne Goodyer, a volunteer at Malmesbury's Athelstan Museum, which tells the forgotten king's fascinating story, told me. "But this is the heartland of English history; he's remembered very, very fondly here."

While every English school child can tell you the story of Alfred the Great burning the cakes, his grandson's exploits are typically consigned to dusty library shelves. When he was born around 894AD, the land now known as England was divided between warring Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Viking invaders. Alfred, King of Wessex, dreamed of uniting the English-speaking peoples of Britain to defeat the Norse usurpers. After laying the foundations for an ambitious nation building project, his grandson, who ruled from 924 to 939AD, became the first king of a united territory after conquering the Viking-controlled kingdom of Jorvik (York) that occupied much of northern England.

"For the first time in history, the ethnic English peoples were all ruled by one king," explained local historian and author Tony McAleavy, who explores the history of Æthelstan's supposed resting place in his book, Malmesbury Abbey 670-1539. "After taking the north in 927, he could claim to rule over all the people of Anglo-Saxon descent, or the English as they began calling themselves."

An intensely pious king, Æthelstan's reverence for Saint Aldhelm, the 8th-Century Abbot of Malmesbury,........

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