Walks you can reach from Gainsborough Lea Road by train

Recommended: An excellent route; very enjoyable. An off-road and peaceful route using byways, the Chesterfield Canal towpath, farm tracks and with some walking through housed areas on safe pavements at either end. The canal section can get hemmed in by bracken and undergrowth; no serious hills. Follows the Chesterfield Canal towpath; passes Babworth Church, linked to the Pilgrim Fathers, with a display board; few benches in the middle third.

Lunch: The Chequers pub at Ranby is the only refreshment option in the middle third and needs a detour off the towpath; stock up at the start otherwise.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

The Foss Dyke section is excellent. A largely flat, very accessible route following the Foss Dyke canal on firm tarmac or gravel paths for most of the way and with a short grassy section near the Pyewipe Inn. The final couple of miles leave the canal to follow a decent but noisy pavement alongside the busy A57. Follows the Foss Dyke; Lincoln Cathedral is visible from a long way off.

Lunch: Excellent chippy on the approach to Saxilby station; cafe by the A57 junction.

Warnings: The A57 crossing on the alternative direct line has no central refuge; this route uses a safer signposted cycle crossing with a central refuge but no lights. The A57 pavement is noisy and narrow in places.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A straightforward route through lovely Lincolnshire countryside and villages, following the Spires and Steeples Trail almost all the way. It is mostly tarmacked cycleway or track, with some field footpaths, quiet road walking and one early set of steps. Sections can be very muddy or flooded after heavy rain. Follows the waymarked Spires and Steeples Trail almost the whole way (signage through villages can be confusing or missing). Starts on the flat, tarmacked Water Rail Way to Washingborough. Branston has a useful Co-op and a main bus route.

Warnings: The level crossing between Branston and Potterhanworth marked on the GPX is no longer usable and is blocked off; use the road nearby to cross under the tracks instead. Sections between Washingborough and Branston can flood badly after heavy rain, sometimes requiring a sizeable diversion. An early footbridge with steps. Can be muddy.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A mix of public footpath, country lanes and some pavement alongside busier roads through Lincolnshire farmland. Some footpaths are not well trodden and cross ploughed fields and but the route is generally well signposted.

Lunch: Numerous refreshment options in Nettleham.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

An excellent route; There are always good views, changing with the seasons. Highly recommended; This is a route to be enjoyed! An easy, flat, direct route running virtually all along the Chesterfield Canal towpath, part of the well-signed Cuckoo Way. The towpath is mostly a bonded or stone surface, with some muddy stretches where the right-of-way path runs north of the canal and plus passages through landscaped former-colliery land and community woodland. A few steps at Turnerwood. Follows the Cuckoo Way along the Chesterfield Canal, with many locks and canal information boards. Turnerwood is a Conservation Area. Served by four stations along the way for bailing out, and passes Kiveton Community Woodland.

Lunch: Pubs and cafes along or just off the route at Kiveton Park station and Shireoaks, plus a shop at the Shireoaks road crossing.

Warnings: Parts of the path on the north side of the canal can be muddy after wet weather. A few steps at Turnerwood spoil the otherwise easy going.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

An excellent route. A fairly direct, mostly off-road route on good traffic-free tracks, old railway path and field/parkland through the Welbeck Estate, with some pasture (potential cattle) and 3 stiles and 4 short flights of steps near Worksop. Some pavement walking from the stations at either end. Passes through the Welbeck Estate and Creswell Crags; the path runs over a tunnel created by the 5th Duke of Portland; a loop into Creswell village offers shops, buses and trains halfway. Extensive woodland.

1 lunch spot: Creswell Crags Visitor Centre cafe

Warnings: Steps at the crossing of the A57, which has no assistance for walkers; two further road crossings need care; pasture fields on the fringe of parkland mean potential cattle.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

The view from the viaduct makes the tour worthwhile. A varied riverside walk crossing the River Don by the Conisbrough Viaduct, then following the Trans Pennine Trail and Don riverside into Doncaster. Mostly good bonded-surface cycle track and easy riverside path, with some compacted-earth and open flood-bank sections that can flood and plus steps and stiles. From Conisbrough Viaduct it's possible to stay on the Trans Pennine Trail much further west.

1 lunch spot: the Boat Inn

Warnings: Stiles and steps along the way, and the compacted-earth riverside section shows signs of flooding at times. Care needed taking the right-hand uphill fork approaching the viaduct.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

An easy, direct route mostly on well-signposted cycletracks and entirely on hard surfaces, with no stiles. It starts past a stone church, follows a segregated pavement and cycle track along a busy road, then an old-railway cycle track in a green corridor into Doncaster, with a fiddly but well-mapped finish through the town's roundabout and footbridges and bus station. Some steps above the bus station (avoidable). Largely follows the Doncaster Cycleway / Sustrans routes along old railway lines. The Draughtsman Alehouse micropub is on Doncaster station platform 3 (no train ticket needed).

Lunch: A large pub/food outlet at the junction with the Great North Road.

Warnings: Some steps above Doncaster bus station (avoidable by a detour). Lockable gates at a shopping area (in practice left open). Endless traffic alongside the segregated pavement.

Walk details: Slow Ways.