Walks you can reach from Barnsley Interchange by train

The hidden Gunthwaite valley, bridleways and a packhorse bridge, past the 16th-century Gunthwaite cruck barn and 29-arch Penistone Viaduct, ending at the 'Pie Village' of Denby Dale. The trail's longest section.

Gunthwaite Hall barn: A 16th-century Grade I listed close-studded cruck tithe barn still in agricultural use today.

Denby Dale Viaduct: A 21-arch stone railway viaduct opened in 1880, built alongside an earlier timber viaduct of cobweb appearance.

Warnings: Steps onto Acre Lane can be overgrown.

Walk details: Penistone Line Trail / Penistone Line Partnership (PDF).

Flat urban canal towpaths and riverside paths along the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal and Five Weirs Walk, past Victoria Quays and the Tinsley locks. An easy waterside start to the trail.

Victoria Quays: A large canal basin in Sheffield constructed 1816-1819 as the terminus of the Sheffield Canal.

The Sheffield & Tinsley Canal: A canal opened in 1819 to link the city with the navigable River Don, famous for featuring in the opening scenes of the film The Full Monty.

Walk details: Penistone Line Trail / Penistone Line Partnership (PDF).

Urban streets, landscaped Victorian cemetery, municipal parkland, narrow wooded valley, open moorland, rugged gritstone edges and a scenic descent into lush valley.

Time: 6h30

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

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).

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).

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).

35% hard surfaced 35%. Made up level surfaces 30% fields/countryside. Flat with one significant rising section.

Walk details: Visit Amber Valley (PDF).

Disused railway trackbed and the Blackburn Valley Trail through ancient Woolley Wood, following the Blackburn Brook past old mill sites into Chapeltown.

Woolley Wood: An ancient woodland continuously wooded since at least 1600, noted for its hornbeam trees and the locally uncommon Hawfinch.

Walk details: Penistone Line Trail / Penistone Line Partnership (PDF).

Ancient woods, country park and reservoir, with Civil War history, the Kes-famous Tankersley Old Hall ruins and Elsecar Heritage Centre. A longer, facility-free section.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Westwood Country Park: A park with woodland walking trails, cycle routes and a reservoir.

Tankersley Old Hall: The ruins of a medieval hall destroyed during the English Civil War, later featured in the 1969 film Kes.

Elsecar Heritage Centre: A visitor attraction in former Victorian workshops housing the Newcomen Beam Engine, a steam railway and canal basin.

Time: 2h–3h30

Warnings: No facilities en route; bring refreshments. Take care crossing Tankersley Golf Course.

Walk details: Penistone Line Trail / Penistone Line Partnership (PDF).

Similar walk: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Canal, industrial towns and disused railway viaduct.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Erewash Canal.

Time: 4h–8h

3 lunch spots: Hallam Fields, Ilkeston (2h30–5h in) — Gallows Grub, or the Gallows Inn; plus La Rock (1h30–2h30 in)

1 end-of-walk reward: the Dew Drop Inn

Adapted from: the Leicester Ramblers.

Urban and suburban streets, golf-course path, woodland, abandoned canal towpath (partly waterlogged) and active canal towpath. Bennerley Viaduct gives expansive valley views — Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station is visible 10+ miles distant. Approximate walking time 4–5 hours.

Time: 4h–8h

Warnings: Heavy traffic at the dual-carriageway crossing near Nottingham; canal paths shared with cyclists.

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

Recommended: A largely step-free, fairly clear route on roads, paths and through a pair of parks, with a brief stretch of industrial ground between them. A field path leads out of Featherstone and the road into central Castleford is quite long.

Time: 2h–4h

Warnings: The path runs close beside the M62 for about ten minutes, with heavy traffic noise; you are safely behind a hedge.

Walk details: Slow Ways.