ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the changing nature of leisure during COVID-19 restrictions, where walking outdoors has often been the only option for leisure, exercise, and/or socialisation. “Going for a walk” has now acquired a new significance and, it can be argued, a ritualistic rhythm in our pandemic lives. The research aims to better understand how COVID-19 has had an impact on leisure time in the UK, specifically focusing on walking. Through survey questionnaires focusing on participant demographics as well as frequency and purpose of walking, we seek to gain understanding into the ritual of walking and what new individual and collective meanings are being formulated. By engaging in an activity perhaps once thought to be mundane, walking now can be experienced as a focal point providing structure to the days of social isolation or quarantine, as liberation from the constraints of lockdown, as a change of scenery when travel is not allowed, as untypical socialisation from the pre-pandemic norm, as a welcome respite from family and caring responsibilities; thus, this type of leisure has emerged as a rather more complex and affective activity in these unprecedented times.
