Best walk from Furze Platt

Furze Platt Station to Cookham Station

A level point-to-point along one of the most scenic stretches of the Thames Path. From Furze Platt it reaches the river at Boulter's Lock (with Ray Mill Island and its boathouse just ahead), then follows the tree-lined bank north below the wooded slopes of Cliveden, passing the Battlemead wetlands, into Cookham — with an optional detour to the Stanley Spencer Gallery — and up to the station.

7km.

Highlights: the River Thames (England's best-known river, whose towpath (the Thames Path National Trail) carries long stretches of nearly every walk in this set), Ray Mill Island (a landscaped Thames island by Boulter's Lock with gardens and a boathouse cafe), Cliveden (a National Trust estate of wooded slopes and gardens rising above the Thames, famous as the setting of the Profumo affair), and Stanley Spencer Gallery (a gallery in Cookham village devoted to the artist Stanley Spencer, who lived and painted here).

Lunch: Boathouse cafe on Ray Mill Island; the White Oak and Old Swan Uppers pubs in Cookham.

Documented by Round Reading Walk — download GPX route