Walks you can reach from Meadowhall Interchange by train

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

Time: 8h30 (6h30 walking, 1h30 lunch, 30m break)

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

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: 4h30 (3h walking, 1h30 lunch)

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: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

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.

Time: 3h30 (2h walking, 1h30 lunch)

Walk details: Visit Amber Valley (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: 3h30 (2h walking, 1h30 lunch)

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).

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

Time: 4h (2h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

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.

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.

Time: 4h (2h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

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

Time: 5h30 (4h walking, 1h30 lunch)

Walk details: Rail Rambles.

Canal, industrial towns and disused railway viaduct.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Erewash Canal.

Time: 5h30 (4h walking, 1h30 lunch)

3 lunch spots: Hallam Fields, Ilkeston (2h30 in) — Gallows Grub, or the Gallows Inn; plus La Rock (1h15 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: 5h30 (4h walking, 1h30 lunch)

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: An excellent route; very enjoyable. An off-road and peaceful route using byways, the Chesterfield Canal towpath, farm tracks and with some walking through housed areas on safe pavements at either end. The canal section can get hemmed in by bracken and undergrowth; no serious hills. Follows the Chesterfield Canal towpath; passes Babworth Church, linked to the Pilgrim Fathers, with a display board; few benches in the middle third.

Mr Straw's House (National Trust)

Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Lunch: The Chequers pub at Ranby is the only refreshment option in the middle third and needs a detour off the towpath; stock up at the start otherwise.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: An enjoyable route that is remote in parts.

Time: 7h (5h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Remote in parts.

Walk details: Slow Ways.