Walks you can reach from Darton by train

Derelict Barnsley Canal towpath, riverside paths, a stillwater fishery and field paths into Dodworth. Industrial heritage of coal and glassmaking.

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

Trans Pennine Trail through ancient woods, farmland and disused railway viaducts, past Dearne Valley Park (good for kingfishers), Monk Bretton Priory ruins and the old Barnsley Canal aqueduct.

2 highlights: Monk Bretton Priory (The ruins of a monastery founded in 1154 as a Cluniac house, now in the care of English Heritage) and Dearne Valley Park (A green corridor extending two miles along the River Dearne and one of the best places to see kingfishers in the valley)

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.

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

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).

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

1 highlight: 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).

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.

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.

Some beautiful scenery along the way; excellent views over the fields near Chapeltown. A pleasant, quiet route that does a good job joining up green spaces (parks, woodland, cemetery and fields) with only a few roads between, through varied Sheffield suburbs. It has steep sections, many steps and muddy field paths and with uneven steps in Hartley Brook Dyke. Joins up green spaces including Burngreave Cemetery and woodland; good public transport links at both ends so you can start at either. Shops at Ecclesfield in the final stretch. Extensive woodland.

Lunch: Shops and a chip shop with outside seating along the main road at Ecclesfield.

Warnings: Steep sections, steep and uneven steps (notably in Hartley Brook Dyke), and muddy field paths; some road crossings without lights (Herries Road, the A6135) need care; kissing gates and narrow barriers throughout.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A view of the stunning Wentworth Hall and it's delightful associated village; one of the grandest stately homes in the country. A typical mix of roadside pavements, quiet lanes without pavement, field, wood and grassy-lane paths, including a long and almost traffic-free tarmac section through the grounds of a grand estate. Some gentle climbs; mostly easy going.

Lunch: Shops and cafes at the Elsecar heritage centre, and a shop, inn and post office just off route at Wentworth.

Warnings: Cattle may be present where the route crosses estate parkland. The lane approaching Wentworth can be overgrown. Munsbrough Rise/Munsborough Lane can be busy and is a hazard on car-boot-sale days.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A mostly flat, well-surfaced walk on towpath, old railway cycle track and pavement and following the Don and the canal through a green corridor between industrial sites. A few unsurfaced but compacted sections and some steps; one significant climb early on. Follows the Trans Pennine Trail along the canal. No services on route. Rotherham Central station building is notably impressive.

Lunch: No services on the route.

Warnings: A major road crossing on Meadow Bank Road needs care; use the pelican crossing as the pavement runs out beyond the residential area. The route also negotiates subways and level crossings beneath the M1 at Tinsley.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A very pleasant, easy-to-navigate walk mixing gravel paths through a nature reserve with paved roads in Castleford and Knottingley, the nature-reserve middle section being the best part. There are areas of relatively steep incline, gates, a stile and field near Knottingley; trainers suffice in dry weather and boots in winter. The village of Fairburn, about halfway, is a good pause point for refreshments.

Lunch: Fairburn, about halfway, offers a refreshment stop.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A walk that follows the river out of the Calder valley on the signposted TransPennine Trail, then through a country park with parkland paths, fields and lakeside tracks. The western part is on good paths; finding the right paths becomes tricky once away from the valley and with one section that can flood. Follows the signposted TransPennine Trail along the river. The Normanton meeting point has several benches.

Warnings: One slightly flooded section could be impassable in wetter conditions. Paths in the eastern half are hard to find and do not match the rights of way.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A walk that is an uninspiring pavement plod out of Barnsley along the main road, then footpaths and farm tracks west of Dodworth that can be quite muddy, with a steep climb giving good views and before crossing fields and woodland into Penistone. Passes a pack-horse bridge with an informative plaque, and a viewpoint over Penistone viaduct with a bench. Silkstone has two pubs just off the route. Extensive woodland.

1 lunch spot: the Bells

Warnings: Several busy, fast roads to cross, including the B6462 in Penistone, the A628 near Silkstone and the A629, plus a motorway slip road where cars accelerate fast. There are lots of high stiles. Can be muddy.

Walk details: Slow Ways.