Walks you can reach from Bristol Parkway by train

Open farmland and field paths through quiet villages.

Time: 2h30–4h30

Walk details: Worcestershire Community Rail Partnership (PDF).

Flat Thames towpath, riverside parks, wooded sections, pasture fields, meadows and riverside gardens.

Waterway: four fifths along the River Thames.

Time: 4h–8h

Warnings: Flood risk sections.

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

Similar walk: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Flat Thames Path riverside countryside, the Horseshoe Bridge and the historic Bull Inn at Sonning (of Three Men in a Boat).

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.

Time: 2h30

Warnings: Shared with cyclists between Reading and Sonning; walkers only beyond.

Walk details: Reading to Basingstoke Community Rail Partnership (turn-by-turn directions).

Medieval friaries, Gloucester Cathedral's fan-vaulted cloisters, the historic docks and the river-meadow Alney Island reserve on the Severn.

Gloucester Docks: Britain's most inland port, the 1827 terminus of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, ringed by Victorian warehouses.

Gloucester Cathedral: A great medieval cathedral with celebrated fan-vaulted cloisters, near the start of the walk.

Llanthony Secunda Priory: The surviving buildings of a 12th-century Augustinian priory beside the Gloucester docks.

Alney Island Nature Reserve: A river-meadow nature reserve on an island between two channels of the River Severn.

Over Bridge: A single-span masonry bridge over the Severn designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1829.

Time: 1h

Walk details: Bristol Rail Campaign (photos, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Thames Valley farmland, riverside paths, attractive villages, Iron Age hill forts and a nature reserve.

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

Canal towpath at the start, then a wooded climb and open parkland.

Time: 2h–4h30

Walk details: Worcestershire Community Rail Partnership (PDF).

Recommended

Walk details: Railwalks.

Recommended

Walk details: Railwalks.

Wonderful views. Hill and moorland paths and with substantial climbs.

Time: 6h–11h30

Walk details: Railwalks.

Residential streets and a short lane out of Goring join the Thames Path to Whitchurch, a wooded stretch with steep inclines and steps. Then quiet lanes, gravel and metalled tracks and concrete farm paths north of the Thames through Mapledurham and with steep hills on the north side. The final water-meadow section near Goring can get muddy and flood in winter. Follows the Thames Path National Trail as far as Whitchurch, then lanes and footpaths north of the river. The route passes the Mapledurham and Hardwick estates with their horses and organic farm. The walk can be shortened by dropping into Pangbourne at Whitchurch.

Time: 4h–8h

1 lunch spot: the Greyhound Inn

End-of-walk reward: Caversham's Church Street, near the end, has plenty of amenities.

Warnings: Some residential roads have no pavement, though good verge paths exist on each side. The Hartslock woods section has steep inclines and steps. The water meadows can get muddy and sometimes flood in winter.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Panoramic views; long views. Hill and moorland paths with fields and with substantial climbs.

Time: 7h30–15h30

Warnings: Sections can be overgrown.

Walk details: Railwalks.

Time: 7h30–15h

Walk details: Railwalks.