Walks in Buckinghamshire by train
MapA day hike in the countryside is just a simple train journey away — explore the most charmingly located railway stations in Buckinghamshire and plan your next day of green.
Bow Brickhill to Woburn Sands
15 minutes from Milton Keynes Central, with one change.
Woods, golf course, gentle hills, landscaped deer park, village streets, playing fields and golf links.
Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.
Woburn Safari Park: a 300-acre wildlife park opened in 1970, home to over 80 species including critically endangered hoofed mammals (3h30 in).
5 lunch spots: Woburn (2h15 in) — the Black Horse, Lussmanns, Galloways, Woburn Thai, or the Woburn Hotel
1 end-of-walk reward: the Station Tavern
Warnings: Can be muddy.
Adapted from: Time Out Country Walks Volume 1.
Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.
Cheddington Circular via Ascott House
15 minutes direct from Milton Keynes Central.
Ascott House (National Trust; 1h45 in; 2h30 to visit)
1 lunch spot: Ascott House tearoom (1h45 in)
Source: Trains2Green.
Wolverton to Northampton
3 minutes direct from Milton Keynes Central.
Fields, meadows, riverside cycle paths, medieval hunting forest, parkland, university campus and riverside town approach.
Warnings: Can be muddy.
Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).
Bow Brickhill to Leighton Buzzard
15 minutes direct from Milton Keynes Central.
Woodland paths, pine and beech woods, greensand ridge with valley views, riverside meadows and canal towpath.
Warnings: Can be muddy. Best avoided in winter.
Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).
Milton Keynes Central to Woburn Sands
Recommended: A scenic, mostly off-road route through Milton Keynes connecting green spaces by footpaths, ramps and wide underpasses, well segregated from traffic. Surfaces vary from grass, compacted mud and stone and wood bark to mostly tarmac. There are kissing gates and an avoidable flight of steps.
Warnings: Kissing gates at the Woburn Sands end may restrict accessibility. One avoidable flight of steps near Peartree Bridge. Steps down to the Grand Union Canal can be bypassed by ramp.
Walk details: Slow Ways.
Bletchley to Leighton Buzzard
4 minutes direct from Milton Keynes Central.
Recommended: Stunning with the amazing autumn colours. A mostly flat, easy route, around 90% along the Grand Union Canal towpath and a riverside path by the River Ouzel, with some residential streets and a less pleasant section under railway bridges at the Bletchley end. The towpath is partly traditional and unpaved so can get muddy and the river section can flood after heavy rain. A few sets of steps up to canal bridges. Follows the Grand Union Canal and River Ouzel, with plenty of locks. Easy to return on a short train journey between the two stations. The canal continues to Campbell Park and Milton Keynes if extended.
Waterway: nine tenths along the Grand Union Canal.
Lunch: Plenty of shops at the Leighton Buzzard end and throughout into Bletchley.
Warnings: Two short river/canal sections can flood after heavy rain; fine for boots but not trainers. The towpath is not all paved and can be muddy; one or two sections have subsided. A few steps up to bridges where you cross the canal. Watch for cyclists.
Walk details: Slow Ways.