The Thiepval Memorial and the Ulster Tower

Departure from the car park of the Thiepval Memorial visitor centre.

No markings

(S/E) Opposite the museum entrance, turn right. When you leave the car park, turn right onto the D151, walk past the church on your right and you will come to a crossroads.

(1) Follow the D73 (narrow shoulder) to the left until you reach Connaugh Cemetery.

(2) For those who wish to do so: turn right onto a field path that leads to Mill Road Cemetery.

(3) Retrace your steps.

(2) Continue along the paved hard shoulder on the right-hand side of the road until you reach the entrance to Ulster Tower.

(4) Leave the road and take a path on the right. Descend gently between the fields and come out onto a small road. Follow it to the left, pass a chapel on your left and arrive at a T-junction.

Yellow markings (one-sided, in the direction of travel)

(5) Turn left, descend gently and pass a wash house on your right.

(6) Cross the D73 and continue straight ahead on a stony track. Soon continue on a dirt track. Ignore all the gates on the right and stay on the shaded marked path. Walk some distance alongside a fenced pond on your right and you will reach a small road.

(7) Ignore the turn-off on the right and continue straight ahead between the fields. Then walk alongside a wood on your right.

(8) At a signpost, turn right onto the path that descends into the woods. Ignore a gate on the right and continue straight ahead on a shaded grassy path. Walk alongside fenced ponds on your right.

(9) At the intersection, continue straight ahead on the stabilised path. At the first houses, rejoin the tarmac road. At the crossroads, take the second left, Rue du Moulin, and go uphill.

(10) At the next crossroads, turn sharply left, pass the war memorial and immediately turn right onto Rue Bustière. Turn right onto this street, walk alongside a large farmhouse on your left and continue uphill, ignoring the paths on your left.

(11) At the crossroads at the top of the hill, take the grassy path on the left. Cross a copse and continue between the fields. After the metal posts framing the path, continue along a stony lane until you reach the Franco-British memorial.

No markings

(12) Turn left towards the monument. Climb the steps and pass under the main arch. Descend on the other side to reach the military cemetery, which holds the remains of unknown soldiers, French on the left and British on the right. Turn around, walk along the memorial on your right and rejoin the stony path.

(12) Turn left and, at the crossroads (information signs), go straight ahead. Shortly afterwards, turn left and you will immediately find the car park (S/E).

Hiking boots are useful (potentially wet sections between (6) and (9)).

No water sources identified along the route. Public toilets at the visitor centre (S/E).

This hike partly follows a route designed and marked by the Somme departmental committee of the French Hiking Federation (FFR). Detailed map useful (at least the one accompanying this description).

Hike completed by the author on 30 December 2025.

- Church (1) and chapel (5) in Thiepval.
- British military cemeteries (2) and (3).
- Ulster Tower (Irish memorial) (4).
- Imposing Franco-British memorial at Thiepval (12), erected between 1928 and 1932. Engraved on its arches are the names of 73,367 soldiers of the British Empire who died on the battlefields of the Somme between July 1915 and March 1918.
- Adjacent Franco-British military cemetery (12), which houses the remains of unknown soldiers.