The Circuit de Souvenir is a 55-km signposted tour of First World War battlefields in the area of the Somme. One million men were killed or wounded in the 1916 Battle of Somme, and each village has its own immaculate cemetery or poignant monument. We suggest you start at Péronne and follow the circuit in an anti-clockwise direction.

The passage of time has made this pilgrimage no less popular; in fact there is probably more interest in touring the battlefields now than ever before.

The museum at Péronne, L’Historial de la Grande Guerre,  www.historial.org, place du Château, traces the effects of the war on both the combatants and the civilians back home; and the social revolution it provoked.

The village of Bouchavesnes added Bergen to its name in honour of a wealthy Norwegian benefactor who helped this devastated town and donated the statue of Maréchal Foch. Just before Rancourt are three cemeteries, German, British and the largest French cemetery on the Somme.

After Combles comes Guillemont, where Raymond Asquith, son of the then British Prime Minister, and one of the brightest stars of his generation, is buried at Guillemont Road Cemetery with more than 2,000 others. Just before Longueval, is the South African memorial and Museum at Delville Wood (www.delvillewood.com). The original wood was blasted to pieces during five days of hell in July 1916 when more than 2,000 out of 3,000 South African soldiers were killed. The impressive memorial is surrounded by an oak wood sown from South African acorns. Attractive woodland paths mark the progress of the battle and the only hint of the past horrors are the occasional overgrown trench or rusty piece of ammunition.

Before Martinpuich on the edge of the Bois des Fourceaux a touching Scottish memorial, in the form of a cairn of 192 stones, commemorates the 192 Highlanders who died here.

Turn left on to the D929 and make for Pozières. Strategically placed on the Albert to Bapaume Road, the village had been completely destroyed by August 1916. Amongst the memorials, notice the one dedicated to the British Tank Corps: tanks first went into action from here.

After Pozières, leave the main road, turning right on the D73 for Thiepval. This was the site of a long and bloody seige where on one day 20,000 British soldiers were killed, and 38,000 were wounded. The magnificent Memorial to the Missing can be seen for miles around. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is a huge and terrible reminder of the 73,412 men who have no known graves and whose names are engraved on 16 pillars supporting the massive archway. The fairytale tower of the 36th Ulster Division Memorial lies beyond Thiepval. It is a replica of a tower on the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava’s estate near Belfast where the division first trained. After ploughing, the lines of the old German trenches are clearly visible in the surrounding fields.

Nowhere are the realities of war so easily imagined as at the Newfoundland Memorial Park near Beaumont-Hamel. Here a whole Canadian Regiment was all but wiped out. A huge Caribou watches over the No Man’s Land, with its well-preserved trenches, wisps of barbed wire and one surviving petrified tree – the ‘Danger Tree’. Beyond No Man’s Land, behind what were German lines, lie two secluded cemeteries.

Back on the D929, La Boisselle is the site of the largest crater on the Western Front, caused by more than 27,000 lbs of explosives. Known as the Lochnagar Crater, it has been bought and preserved by an English-man.

Albert is an industrial town, totally rebuilt after the war. The Vierge Dorée (Golden Virgin) on top of the basilica was shelled in 1915 and hung precariously from the dome for three years – a famous landmark until the tower was destroyed. In the tunnels beneath the basilica a wartime trench system containing contemporary artefacts and equipment has been recreated for visitors.

Just off the road to Bécordel is the Dartmoor Cemetery containing the graves, amongst others, of the oldest soldier, at 67, to be killed on the Somme; the recipient of a Victoria Cross; and a father and son who were killed on the same day serving in the same regiment.

At Mametz, turn left for Cantalmaison: off the road to the right a track, chemin des Gallois, leads to the 38th Welsh Division Memorial topped by an unexpectedly dramatic red dragon. The road from Marincourt to Eclusier passes the Belvedère de Vaux on a wide bend in the River Somme: there are lovely views of the river with its many little green islands. At the Cappy station, east of Eclusier, there is a stretch of narrow gauge railway line identical to that which supplied the battlefields. Information on tourist trains (Le P’tit train Haute Somme) can be found at www.appeva.org.