Ipswich to York: Viking group prepare for 200-mile charity walk

Three members of Odinn's Raven Guard will complete the 200-mile walk from Ipswich to York

A Viking re-enactment group is due to begin a 200-mile walk in aid of charity.

Odinn's Raven Guard will make their way on foot from Ipswich to the Jorvik Viking Festival in York.

Wearing full re-enactment costumes, the group hopes the walk will take no longer than five days.

Group co-creator Karla Bartlett said: "We're feeling nervous, but I know it will feel amazing once we get to the finish line."

The living history group was formed by three friends about two years ago in Ipswich - Suffolk's county town which has a rich Anglo-Saxon and Viking history.

After attending the festival in 2023, Ms Bartlett said the trio started to discuss different ways to travel there this year.

"The idea of doing it as a walk came up and we all decided that we could do it," she said.

The living history group show how Vikings cooked, made clothes and lived

The trio have trained by ditching vehicles and walking "every single day" and will be walking in costume in their leather Viking-style footwear.

Funds raised from the challenge will go to the Archaeological Society, the Zoological Society of East Anglia, and Fibromyalgia Action UK.

Ms Bartlett, who has fibromyalgia, said: "[I] wanted to prove that fibro doesn't have to run my life and I can still do everything I want to - even if at the end of it I am going to be in a lot of pain."

The group will depart from Sidegate Primary School in Ipswich at about 10:00 GMT, along with a safety car driver who will keep track of them along their journey.

"We're stopping at different little pubs along the way," Ms Bartlett added.

"They're somewhere we can go and get a drink, get something to eat... a lot of the pubs have said 'we've got spare rooms... we'll put you up for the night'."