Visitors to Shrewsbury will soon be able to “Do the Darwin Walk” as a new tourism trail is launched in the town.

The Darwin River Walk will start by the river in front of the Theatre Severn and follow the river to behind Darwin’s birthplace at The Mount, with a circular walk back to town. There will be five interpretive boards along the route. These will outline the history of the area.

As a boy, Darwin would have been familiar with the area and the wildlife.

Four of the boards have been put up and the last one will be completed in April with the work being done on seating between the river and Theatre Severn.

Destination Shrewsbury manager David Griffiths said: “This will be a further enhancement to our Darwin offer and is a delightful walk in its own right.

“We hope this will be enjoyed by both local people and the increasing number of visitors coming to Shrewsbury.

“Even local people don’t really fully understand the sort of history and I think it will be just as interesting for local people as it will be for visitors. The final board will be put up in April along with seating to complete the full package.”

Darwin 200 officer Jon King said: “What’s important about this walk is that it will take you from the town centre to the meadows where we knew Darwin roamed around hunting for the bugs and beetles.

“You really are following in his footsteps and get some notion of how close his home was to the open countryside.”

Shrewsbury has already benefited from a rise in tourism brought about by the Darwin 200 celebrations taking place this year.

The town has seen an influx of visitors from all over the world in the past six months and journalists from the United States and Germany have been learning about the naturalist’s early life in the town.