Deep Time Walk has been rebuilt from the ground up. It is the foundation of our new multi-narrative platform bringing walks that are more relevant and contextualised.
Every metre you walk is one million years of Earth's history.
Deep Time Walk turns the planet's 4.6-billion-year history into a guided audio walk. Set off, and GPS paces the narration to your own steps - 4.6 kilometres, 4,600 million years, from the molten beginning to the web of life that surround you.
You walk it in company. The included "A Fool and a Scientist" narrative is a dramatised audio production. One character reaches for poetry, the other for evidence, and both circle the same question: how did a ball of hot rock become a living world?
This initial Deep Time Walk narrative is directed by Jeremy Mortimer (over 200 productions for BBC Radio) and designed by Jo Langton (a BBC Studio Manager), with voices provided by leading actors Paul Hilton (Garrow’s Law, The Bill, Silent Witness), Chipo Chung (Doctor Who, Sherlock, Into the Badlands) and Peter Marinker (Love Actually, Event Horizon, Judge Dredd). The script is written by Peter Oswald (ex-playwright in residence at Shakespeare Globe, London) and Dr Stephan Harding.
WHY WALK IT INSTEAD OF READING IT?
Being told the Earth is 4.6 billion years old gives you a number. Walking it gives you something a number cannot - and embodied experience.
Life appears early and then stays single-celled for well over half the journey. The oxygen you are breathing began as a waste product that poisoned the world that made it. Flowers arrive with a few hundred metres to go. All of recorded human history is the last few millimetres. This closing stretch is why so many people walk this. Deep Time Walk helps you think about what it means to be human today - it embodies just how unusual, and how fragile, the conditions we have inherited actually are.
TWO WAYS TO WALK
• Walking mode — GPS advances the story as you move, outdoors, at your own pace.
• Listening mode — for those not able to walk 4.6km.
WHAT YOU GET
• Stunning graphics accompanying different chapters in Earth's history from a range of artists
• Learn about key concepts from Earth’s long evolution including how Earth formed, the evolution of life, plate tectonics, oxygenic photosynthesis, multicellular life, The Cambrian Explosion, vertebrates, plants, amphibians, mammals, dinosaurs and finally (in the last 20cm) humans.
• Around 80 minutes of original audio with an ambient soundscape
• An interactive glossary - tap any idea for a plain-English explanation
• Complete offline downloads, so you need no signal on the walk itself
• Join a Walk - discover small, in-person, facilitator-led group walks happening near you
• Background playback, so the story continues with your screen locked
Step back in time and experience Earth history like never before. Deep Time Walk is a ground-breaking tool enabling anyone, anywhere to take a walking audio history of our planet.
I loved walking through time with this app, and I have recommended it to friends. But I had issues with the app registering my steps (mobility assist helped with that but would often switch itself off), and I really hated the poem at the beginning.I’m all in for renewable everything and I do think humans need to change how they use the earth, but that poem was the breast-beating hair-shirt-wearing self-flagellation style that really turns me off. And I nearly turned the app off because of it. I’m glad I stuck it through, but I do tell people to skip that bit. It’s like a concert beginning with crashing, clashing discord, then suddenly switching over to a calm and peaceful harmony for the duration. I also couldn’t find an explanation anywhere in the app or on their website for the graphic at the top of the app. The colors seem to represent something (oxygen levels, photosynthesis, who knows?), but I can’t figure out what. It’s really got me curious.
Excellent!
evansaurora
If I could make a mandatory listening list for humans, this would be on it. It’s good for us to remember the incredibly long time the Earth has been here and all the different ways the Earth has been, and how short human history really is.
Loved it!
polly~pocket
I love this app! Best walking app yet! It is filled with information about Earth’s history. I would love to see another app similar to this one. My suggestion would be to create a second app that explains those last 1,000,000 years in more detail.
Incredible!
kaiser147
This was absolutely amazing. The writing, voice acting, and sound design are top notch and draw you in to the dramatic evolution of our universe. Find a nice nature trail and just let your mind wander.
Bug fixes and enhancements building upon our recent 2.1 release. We hope you enjoy the journey.
Version 2.1.1
The developer, Deep Time Walk C.I.C., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Location
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Deep Time Walk C.I.C.
Size
8 MB
Category
Education
Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.2 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 18.2 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 18.2 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 15.2 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
Apple Vision Requires visionOS 2.2 or later.
Location
This app may use your location even when it isn’t open, which can decrease device battery life.
