Walks from Leigh-on-Sea

Flat coastal path, seaside promenade, harbour, mudflats, beach huts, residential streets, open grassy seafront and army training area margins.

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

Warnings: MOD closures apply.

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

Recommended: The views from Leigh on Sea looking out to the sea are beautiful. Quiet woodlands, farm paths, horse yards and pretty residential areas and passing through a nature reserve before reaching the coast at Leigh-on-Sea. Includes a safer crossing of the A127. The route passes through a nature reserve near Hadleigh and goes past a windmill.

Rayleigh Mount (National Trust)

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

Walk details: Slow Ways.

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

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A varied, enjoyable but challenging route with a dull pavement start out of Basildon, then a golf course needing careful navigation, a nature reserve, the England Coast Path, a surfaced country park track to Hadleigh Castle. Much of it is wet and slippery in winter and with clay fields near the end; several short flights of steps and stiles. The coastal section is part of the England Coast Path. Passes the quaint St Margaret's Church with a bench, and ripe blackberries in late summer. Easy and affordable trains from either end.

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

Warnings: The path across the golf course needs careful navigation as marker posts are few and indistinct. Several wet, slippery and muddy sections in winter that are largely unavoidable.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Hilly woodland, narrow grassy paths, Hadleigh Country Park and estuary views.

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

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Source: A shorter variant of Benfleet Circular via Leigh on Sea (Saturday Walkers Club).