Walks near Salford by train

Some of the most spectacular views in the Peak District. Footpaths, farm trails, gritstone ridge, hill trails and country lanes. Detailed route map, photographs and route preview video available.

Hilly: a third on high ground, rising above the surrounding land.

Time: 3h30–7h30

Warnings: Challenging in places.

Walk details: Let's Go Peak District (tips, photos, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Abbey precinct, town centre, riverside path, golf course, open pasture, old drove road, moorland ridge, plateau summit, steep scarp, lush valley, meandering river and nature reserve.

Time: 2h30–5h

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Similar walk: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Beautiful Peak District fringe landscape. Valley floor walk with canal towpath and former tramway trail. Historic route tracing pioneering industrial transport infrastructure through Peak District foothills.

Waterway: three quarters along the Peak Forest Canal.

Time: 2h30–5h

Warnings: Busy road sections; rough ground with old concrete and limestone blocks.

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

Impressive vistas. Old railway trackbed (Longdendale Trail/Trans Pennine Trail), moorland paths and country roads. Trans Pennine Trail follows the course of the old Woodhead Railway Line between Manchester and Sheffield. Electrified with new tunnel in 1950s, closed 1981 after 30 years.

Woodland: two fifths under tree cover.

Time: 7h–14h

Warnings: Steep tarmac section; busy A628 crossed three times; steep climb.

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

Spectacular views. Wild landscape of deep valleys and gritstone peaks and studded with peat bogs and pine forests. Buxton developed as a fashionable spa in 18th-19th centuries using profits from Dukes of Devonshire's copper mines. Macclesfield granted borough charter for market in 13th Century.

Time: 5h30–10h30

Warnings: Stiles; busy road with no pavement and fast traffic.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Similar walk: Walk Midlands (inc. GPX).

Reverse direction: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Commanding views from the top. Rough stone steps. The Great Ridge forms the divide between the limestone White Peak and the peaty gritstone Dark Peak. An ancient culture built a hillfort on Mam Tor.

Hilly: half on high ground, rising above the surrounding land.

Time: 4h30–8h30

Warnings: Rough stone steps; busy road at the pass; cattle grid.

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

Steep ascent to heathery ridge, exposed moorland, gritstone escarpments, upland peat bog and scenic ridgeline with panoramic valley views.

Time: 6h30

Warnings: Steep ascents and descents.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

West Pennine Moors circular on the Witton Weavers Way, past a string of reservoirs, into the steep-sided Turton Bottoms valley and Grade I-listed Turton Tower. Rich in industrial heritage and birdlife.

Turton Tower: A Grade I-listed manor house built around a medieval peel tower.

Warnings: A few short steep ascents.

Walk details: Community Rail Lancashire (PDF).

Countryside circular to a never-used railway cutting, crossing the Ribble on the Dinkley Suspension Bridge on the Ribble Way, past the twelfth-century Old Langho Church and an old Roman road.

Walk details: Community Rail Lancashire (PDF).

River Calder circular contrasting two viaducts: the 48-arch brick Whalley Viaduct and the disused ten-arch stone Martholme Viaduct, near the historic village of Whalley with its parish church and abbey ruins.

Whalley Viaduct: A 48-arch brick railway viaduct striding across the Calder valley.

Whalley Abbey: The ruins of a 14th-century Cistercian abbey beside the River Calder.

Walk details: Community Rail Lancashire (PDF).

Steep residential roads, rolling pastures, quarried hilltop, moorland edges, forest, isolated chapel, reservoir, long ridgeline and canal towpath.

Time: 7h

Warnings: Steep ascents.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Pedestrianised Altrincham, the Devisdale, woodland, a golf course and the Bridgewater Canal towpath, near the Dunham Massey estate.

The Bridgewater Canal: England's first major industrial-era canal, completed in 1761, whose tree-lined towpath threads continuously from rural Cheshire into central Manchester.

Dunham Massey: A National Trust Georgian mansion set in a 300-acre deer park, lying just west of the Altrincham circular route.

Time: 2h30

Lunch: Various pubs, cafes and takeaways in Altrincham, plus the Axe and Cleaver and Bay Malton pubs on the route.

Warnings: Take care crossing the golf course; towpath can be very muddy.

Walk details: Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership.