Walks you can reach from Chippenham 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 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).

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).

Flat riverside towpaths, water meadows, canal towpath, Oxford city streets, college lanes and historic squares.

Pitt Rivers Museum

Oxford

Time: 4h–8h

4 lunch spots: Wolvercote (1h–2h30 in) — the Trout Inn, Godstow, or the Jacob's Inn; plus the Perch (30m–1h in), or the Anchor (2h–4h in)

8 end-of-walk rewards: the Lamb & Flag, Oxford, the Red Lion, the Turf Tavern, the Bear, the Crown, the Royal Blenheim, the Castle Pub, or the Jolly Farmers

Warnings: Two fifths urban. Can be flooded.

Adapted from: Time Out Country Walks Volume 1.

Similar walk: the Saturday Walkers Club.

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.

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.