Walks near Dewsbury 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).

Easy, peaceful Leeds and Liverpool Canal towpath: locks, swing bridges, wharves and the River Aire near St Andrew's Church, Gargrave to Skipton.

Waterway: almost all along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

Time: 2h–4h30

Walk details: Community Rail Lancashire (PDF).

Similar walk: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

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).

Spectacular views of valley while crossing dams. Primarily along the Pennine Way. Pennine Way since 1965. Hadfield = Royston Vassey in League of Gentlemen TV series. Longdendale Chain reservoirs (1830s-1884) supplied Manchester. Derelict textile mill at walk's end.

Time: 6h30–13h30

Warnings: Steep section beside Rakes Rocks; cliff edge high above clough; long flight of stone steps to descend near Marsden.

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

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.

Monk Bretton Priory: The ruins of a monastery founded in 1154 as a Cluniac house, now in the care of English Heritage.

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).

Recommended: A very enjoyable, direct and straightforward canal walk, almost entirely along the Rochdale Canal towpath following national cycle route 66. The terrain is nearly all level with a mostly gravel surface, though bridges and slopes past locks have cobbles and canal overflows run over cobbles across the towpath in several places. Tree cover gives a green-tunnel feel. Follows national cycle route 66 along the Rochdale Canal. Canalside interest: locks, houseboats, mileposts and stone bridges.

Waterway: almost all along the Rochdale Canal.

Time: 2h–4h

Lunch: Refreshment opportunities along the canalside towards Hebden Bridge.

Warnings: Canal overflows run over cobbles across the towpath in several places, with a raised plank alongside to keep feet dry.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: Great views. Very flat and easy walking: a canal towpath, a good-surfaced path across a former airfield, then open countryside, lanes and tracks and a flood bank and a bridge over the River Aire. Just short stretches of busy and verge-only road. Follows the Trans Pennine Trail across Burn Airfield, which has benches and interpretation boards; you may see gliders taking off and landing.

Time: 4h–7h30

Warnings: A short stretch of busy road at the start, and a section of roadside walking with no pavement on a straight part of Hirst Road. Snaith has only around three trains a day.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: An enjoyable route that is remote in parts.

Time: 5h30–11h

Warnings: Remote in parts.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

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.