Walks near St Helens by train

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).

Walk details: Rail Rambles.

Short, flat: the village of Rufford, the Lancashire Wildlife Trust's Mere Sands Wood (42 ha of lakes, woodland, wildfowl and waders) and Tudor Rufford Old Hall.

Mere Sands Wood: A 42-hectare Lancashire Wildlife Trust reserve of lakes and woodland rich in wildfowl and waders.

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).

Moorland circular up the high ground above Baxenden along the closed Accrington-Manchester railway, past bridge piers, old stone waggonway, the castellated New High Riley farm and broad town viewpoints.

Walk details: Community Rail Lancashire (PDF).

Walk details: Rail Rambles.

Coast, quiet farmland lanes and the lock-free Lancaster Canal towpath into Carnforth, the station of Brief Encounter fame.

Time: 2h

Walk details: Community Rail Lancashire (PDF).

Similar walk: Railwalks.

Limestone scenery of the Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape: lanes, woodland and outcrops, climbing Warton Crag for sweeping views over Morecambe Bay. Rare butterflies, moths and lizards on the crag.

Time: 2h30

Walk details: Discover Bowland (PDF).

Fields, lanes and canal towpath through the Lune valley, past Loyn Bridge near Gressingham, then over Kellet along the Lancaster Canal into Carnforth.

Time: 5h30

Warnings: Strenuous full-day walk; can be split into shorter legs.

Walk details: Community Rail Lancashire (PDF).

Spectacular. Canal towpath with residential roads and riverside paths. Scenic canal walk through Peak District foothills along the Peak Forest Canal.

Waterway: almost all along the Peak Forest Canal.

Time: 2h30–4h30

Warnings: Muddy sections on towpath.

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

Reverse direction: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Flat coastal path round Morecambe Bay, open Oxcliffe Levels and seafront promenade, with the industrial Heysham power stations and ferry terminal and Lake District views across the tidal sands.

Time: 2h30

Warnings: Heysham Port has only a few trains a day, timed around the Isle of Man ferry.

Walk details: Community Rail Lancashire (PDF).

Similar walk: Railwalks.

Recommended: The magnificent Lune Aqueduct; a canalside view of the sea, with mountains beyond. A long but very easy route, canal towpath nearly all the way, with short street sections at each end and no stiles, gates or steps. The towpath contours above the Lune valley over the magnificent Lune Aqueduct; surface is tarmac (partly broken) or fine gravel and lumpy in places with a couple of short muddy patches and a short cobbled section. Views across the fields, Morecambe Bay and the Lakeland hills; kingfishers sometimes seen. Cafés at St John's Hospice (Lancaster end) and a shoreside café and micropub at Hest Bank.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Lancaster Canal.

Time: 4h–7h30

Lunch: Canalside pubs and a supermarket at Bolton-le-Sands and a canalside pub at Hest Bank.

1 end-of-walk reward: the Canal Turn

Warnings: The towpath surface is lumpy where the tarmac has disintegrated, with a couple of slightly muddy patches.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Reverse direction: Railwalks (inc. GPX).