Walks near Newport by train

Walk details: Rail Rambles.

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).

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).

Wales Coast Path circuit around Nells Point, Whitmore Bay and Friars Point, mostly flat apart from a steady climb at the start.

Coastal: almost all along the coast.

Nells Point: Coastal headland east of Whitmore Bay with the old National Coastal Institution building on top.

Breakwater Lighthouse: Lighthouse marking the entrance to Barry Harbour, visible from the coast path.

Whitmore Bay: Main Barry Island bay with sandy beach and seafront promenade.

Friars Point: Headland on the west side of Whitmore Bay with views across the Severn Estuary.

Time: 1h–2h

Warnings: Steady climb at the start.

Walk details: Transport for Wales (tips, photos 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).

Cotswolds farmland, disused canal towpath, ancient hillfort, beech woods, high watershed, grand parkland vistas, market town streets, quiet fields and upper Thames riverbank.

Time: 6h

Warnings: Can flood at Thames Head.

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

Coastal headlands, pebble and sandy beaches, flat rock-shelf beaches, low cliffs, striated limestone cliffs, parkland, quiet cliff paths, wetland and historic town centre.

Coastal: nine tenths along the coast.

Time: 5h30–10h30

Warnings: Check tide timings.

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

Similar walk: Railwalks (inc. GPX).

Reverse direction: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Flat tarmac route between Trehafod and Pontypridd stations through Rhondda Heritage Park, Barry Sidings Country Park and Pontypridd town centre.

Waterway: three fifths along the Afon Rhondda.

Woodland: half under tree cover.

Rhondda Heritage Park: A former colliery turned mining museum at Trehafod, telling the story of the Rhondda coalfield.

Barry Sidings Country Park: A reclaimed colliery site in the Rhondda valley, now a country park on the flat path to Pontypridd.

Ynysangharad Park: Pontypridd's main park, home to the National Lido of Wales.

Time: 1h–2h30

1 lunch spot: Barry Sidings Country Park Café

Walk details: Transport for Wales (tips, photos and turn-by-turn directions).

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: 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

Walk details: Railwalks.