Walks you can reach from Avoncliff by train

Highly recommended

Old Sarum Ruins

Stonehenge

Time: 4h30–9h

1 lunch spot: the Bridge Inn (2h30–5h30 in; excellent)

Warnings: Have lunch a café or pub next to the river. Return from Stonehenge to Salisbury by bus (very frequent & reliable but check times).

Adapted from: The Rough Guide to Walks in London & the South East (3rd edition).

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).

Chalk downland, Iron Age hillforts, five hills, Salisbury Plain military range, abandoned village and sweeping views over Wiltshire and Somerset.

Time: 7h

Warnings: MOD closures apply.

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.

Beautiful walk; fantastic. Canal towpath with fields.

Time: 5h30–11h

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

Walk details: Railwalks.

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.

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

Time: 7h30–15h

Walk details: Railwalks.

An excellent route; Delightful route; lovely start and end points. A long route with very little road walking (and only minor roads), much of it on forest tracks through managed woodland, taking in several nature reserves and a National Trust estate. Easy walking for the most part, a little gooey in places after heavy rain and with a few gates and some stiles; the main challenge is the length. Passes through Bentley Wood nature reserve and at least two other nature reserves, and takes in the National Trust's Mottisfont estate. Can be shortened by jumping on the train one stop from Dunbridge to Romsey.

Woodland: two fifths under tree cover.

Time: 8h–15h30

Warnings: The approach to Romsey crosses an active gravel pit between Awbridge and Squabb Wood, which can require diversions, and the lower end of Squabb Wood can be very wet and difficult in winter.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Beautiful; picturesque. Riverside path and flat and easy-going.

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

Woodland: a third under tree cover.

Time: 6h30–13h

Walk details: Railwalks.

Picturesque; magnificent. Canal towpath with woodland, fields and flat and easy-going.

Waterway: four fifths along the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Time: 1h30–3h

Walk details: Railwalks.