Walks you can reach from Westbury by train

Highly recommended

Old Sarum Ruins (1h in)

Stonehenge (4h30 in)

Stonehenge Landscape (National Trust; 4h30 in)

Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

1 lunch spot: the Bridge Inn (2h30 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).

Chalk downland, the Pewsey White Horse hill figure, the River Avon and a quiet village, with spectacular views.

Pewsey White Horse: A 20th-century chalk hill figure cut into the downs above Pewsey.

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

Walk details: Visit Pewsey Vale (photos).

Somerset Levels fringes, hillock, quiet residential streets, charming market town, dry green valley, ancient holloway, pastures, shallow river valley, hillfort plateau, steep ascents, large WWII airfield remains and broad plateau with views.

Time: 9h (7h walking, 1h30 lunch, 30m break)

Warnings: Steep ascents and descents.

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

South Somerset pastures, wooded ridge forming the Wiltshire/Somerset boundary, hanging woods, landscaped estate gardens with lakeside walks, grassy U-shaped valley and honey-coloured stone-built town.

Stourhead (National Trust)

Stourhead Estate (National Trust)

Time: 7h (5h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

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

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

Time: 6h30 (5h walking, 1h30 lunch)

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

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

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

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

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

Lacock (National Trust)

Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Can be muddy.

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

Gentle climbs, heathland common, woodland, river meadows and canal.

Time: 7h (5h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Swing bridge delays.

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

Hampshire countryside and quiet lanes — a canal path, Tadburn Meadows, the boardwalks of Emer Bog and Knight Wood.

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

Warnings: Nine stiles; can be boggy after wet weather; not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs; take care at road crossings.

Walk details: Three Rivers Community Rail Partnership (PDF).

A walk in open country and Devon green lanes linking the city's two outer stations, climbing out of the suburbs through Mincinglake Valley Park and over Stoke Hill, with superb views opening up over Exeter and down the Exe Estuary before a long descent past the University to St David's.

Mincinglake Valley Park: a wooded valley park and Local Nature Reserve climbing out of the city, with views opening back over Exeter.

Exeter

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

Lunch: Pubs and shops at the start (the Queen's Head by Polsloe Bridge) and at the finish (the Jolly Porter and Great Western, opposite St David's station).

Walk details: Avocet Line Rail Users Group (PDF).

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.

Prior Park Landscape Garden (National Trust)

Time: 7h30 (6h walking, 1h30 lunch)

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.