Walks you can reach from Nailsea and Backwell by train

Disused railway path, tunnels, viaducts, canal towpath, river and historic city centre.

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

Flat fields, river meadows, canal path, farmland, small woods and residential streets.

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

Recommended: A great walk. A great walk with a good variety of open fields, woodland, stony tracks and a disused-railway cycle track and with very little on roads. Muddy at some points; a very steep climb with steps from the cycle track up to Combe Down if walked from Frome.

Hilly: a quarter on high ground, rising above the surrounding land.

Woodland: a fifth under tree cover.

Time: 6h–12h

Lunch: A pub at Norton St Philip, mid-route, makes a good coffee stop.

Warnings: A very steep climb with steps from the cycle track up to Combe Down.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: A long, wheelchair- and pushchair-friendly route that is largely Kennet & Avon Canal towpath, with pavement out of Bath and into Melksham. Avoids the stiles, fields and crops and livestock of the shorter cross-country alternatives.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Time: 7h30–14h30

Lunch: Bradford on Avon at the mid-point has multiple pubs, restaurants and facilities.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: A largely off-road route using the River Avon Trail and the well-maintained Bristol & Bath Railway Path (Sustrans Cycle Route 4), flat, smooth and scenic, with extensive tree shade in summer. The first part out of Keynsham, before the cycle path, has kissing gates and a cattle grid and can be muddy. Follows Sustrans National Cycle Route 4; passes Avon Riverside station on the Avon Valley Railway.

Waterway: two thirds along the River Avon.

Woodland: a third under tree cover.

Time: 3h30–6h30

1 lunch spot: the Bird in Hand

Warnings: The Bristol & Bath Railway Path is a very busy cycle and jogging route — cyclists can pass at speed. The Keynsham end has five kissing gates and muddy ground.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: England Coast Path.

Walk details: Railwalks.

Recommended: A field-and-riverside walk passing through fields, woods and alongside the River Avon, with a section under a road bridge into Chippenham. The riverside areas can flood in winter and making it more of a summer route.

Time: 3h–6h

Warnings: Riverside sections can flood in winter. Fields around Melksham are often planted with crops, especially maize, which can make the walk challenging in autumn.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A very beautiful walk full of lush foliage and native flowering plants. Almost entirely along the Kennet & Avon Canal towpath, flat and easy to follow and full of lush foliage and flowering plants. A stone-paved descent to the canal at the Bath end needs caution in the wet; the towpath gets a bit muddy after heavy rain but the underlying surface is stable. Around 30 benches en route.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Time: 5h–10h30

Lunch: A cafe at Brassknocker Basin, plus opportunities for food, drink and restrooms every few miles, with pubs in the first and last thirds.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Reverse direction: the Saturday Walkers Club.

Beautiful walk; fantastic. Canal towpath with fields.

Time: 5h30–11h

Warnings: Short stretch on a fast-traffic road with limited verge.

Walk details: Railwalks.

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

Time: 7h30–15h

Walk details: Railwalks.

Delightful. Coastal path with woodland, street sections at either end and with moderate climbs; surfaced.

Hilly: a third on high ground, rising above the surrounding land.

Coastal: three fifths along the coast.

Woodland: a third under tree cover.

Time: 2h30–5h

Warnings: A quarter urban.

Walk details: Railwalks.

Wide views. A more scenic alternative climbing Woodbury Hill (heavily wooded but with wide views from some points) and made possible by the new Pier to Pier route and a cycle/footbridge across the River Banwell. The latter part can get very wet in winter but was bone dry in summer. Uses the Pier to Pier route (opened 2024), including a cycle and footbridge across the River Banwell. There are places to eat near the start and at the end, but not in the middle.

Time: 4h30–9h30

Lunch: There are places to eat near the start and at the end, but nothing in the middle.

Warnings: The route involves climbing a hill, so a flatter alternative should be kept for those who cannot. The latter part can get very wet in winter.

Walk details: Slow Ways.