Walks you can reach from Belper by train

Undulating countryside with several steep climbs.

Warnings: Several steep climbs.

Walk details: Derwent Valley Line Community Rail Partnership (local insights).

Similar walk: Visit Amber Valley (PDF).

Mixture of hilly and flat terrain with stiles along the way. Telling the story of the Pentrich Rising of 1817, exploring the local men who took part. Route passes through Fritchley and South Wingfield.

Walk details: Derwent Valley Line Community Rail Partnership (local insights).

Parks, river and heritage trail.

Museum of Making

Darley Park

Time: 5h–10h30

6 lunch spots: Darley Park (1h–2h30 in) — Darley Park Terrace Cafe, the Little Darley in the Park, the Abbey Inn, or the Darleys; plus the Joiners Arms (3h–6h in), or the Orangery Café (3h–6h in)

4 end-of-walk rewards: the Alexandra Hotel, the Brunswick, the Victoria Inn, or the Waterfall

Adapted from: the Leicester Ramblers.

Similar walk: North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership.

Historic cotton mill, former railway track to High Peak Junction, canal towpath, deer park, bluebell woodland in Lea Wood, riverside fields and crossing of the River Derwent.

Walk details: Visit Amber Valley (PDF).

Similar walk: East Midlands Railway.

Repurposed railway track along the Great Northern Greenway.

Time: 4h30–9h30

2 lunch spots: the Bell and Harp (1h–2h in), or the Three Horseshoes (2h–4h30 in)

4 end-of-walk rewards: the Alexandra Hotel, the Brunswick, the Waterfall, or the Merry Widows

Warnings: Follows a busy road for a sixth of the walk.

Adapted from: the Leicester Ramblers.

One of the world’s oldest industrial regions. Overgrown canal towpath, woodland and field crossings and ironworks remains. Follows the route of the disused Cromford Canal. Butterley Tunnel (nearly 3 km) collapsed in 1900, severing the canal into two sections.

Waterway: two thirds along the Cromford Canal.

Time: 4h30–9h

Warnings: Substantial tree blockages on overgrown sections; busy A610 road crossing.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Impressive views back across Amber valley. Predominantly countryside walk. Walk takes in Pentrich, where the doomed Pentrich Revolution began in June 1817 — an early working-class uprising following the Napoleonic Wars. Route follows parts of the former Cromford Canal.

Time: 3h–6h

Warnings: Follows a busy road for a sixth of the walk. Busy A610 with lorry traffic; stiles.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Terrain along a preserved canal towpath. Walk follows preserved Cromford Canal from industrial heritage site at Ambergate to Cromford, birthplace of factory system under Richard Arkwright in 1771.

Waterway: almost all along the Cromford Canal.

Woodland: a third under tree cover.

Time: 2h30–4h30

Warnings: Watch out for cyclists on the towpath.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Similar walk: Derwent Valley Line Community Rail Partnership.

Excellent views. Unmade road, woodland paths and open parkland and field paths. No steep climbs. Follows the Midshires Way for a substantial section.

Warnings: Take care crossing the A6.

Walk details: Derwent Valley Line Community Rail Partnership (local insights).

Waterways — River Derwent, Derby & Sandiacre Canal and Erewash Canal.

Time: 5h30–11h

2 lunch spots: Canal Cottage Cafe (2h30–5h30 in), or the Navigation (3h–6h30 in)

2 end-of-walk rewards: Peking House, or the Sawley Junction

Adapted from: the Leicester Ramblers.

Largely urban walking on pavements and a riverside path, through parks and along the line of the Derby Canal.

1 lunch spot: Waterside Café

Warnings: Only a few trains a day call at Peartree.

Walk details: North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership (tips and turn-by-turn directions).

Mixture of off-road cycle path and on-road sections. Part of the longer London-to-Lake-District route.

Walk details: Derwent Valley Line Community Rail Partnership (local insights).