Walks in Staffordshire by train

Golf club, heath, woodland and Heart of England Way.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Time: 5h–10h30

2 lunch spots: the Tame Otter (2h–4h30 in), or the Red Lion (2h–4h30 in)

2 end-of-walk rewards: the Horse and Jockey, or the Turnpike

Warnings: MOD firing range — check access.

Adapted from: the Leicester Ramblers.

Impressive views across southern and central Staffordshire landscape. Walk traverses Staffordshire countryside from Penkridge to Stafford via the ruins of a neo-gothic manor on the site of Stafford's medieval castle.

Time: 3h–6h

Warnings: Busy road near Penkridge; care crossing main roads near Stafford.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Reverse direction: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Pavements and Trent & Mersey Canal towpath, with steep steps over the canal bridges, finishing beside Westport Lake.

Time: 3h

Warnings: Steep steps over the canal bridges.

Walk details: North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership (tips and turn-by-turn directions).

Remarkable survivals (Pelsall and Pelsall North Common). Greenway paths, common land, woodland and field edges. Former mining country with industrial heritage; route follows McClean Way greenway on former South Staffordshire Railway.

Time: 4h–8h

Warnings: Follows a busy road for a sixth of the walk. Barbed wire fencing; complicated road sections with M6 Toll crossing.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Cannock Chase with rugged sandstone plateaus, steep dells, forest tracks, heathland and residential areas. Cannock Chase is UK's smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty established 1958 as green lung for coal mining communities; Littleton Colliery closed December 1993.

Time: 3h–5h30

Warnings: Golf players on course; care of cars on quieter roads.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Wild and dramatic escarpment (Rowley Hills). Mostly along canal towpaths through suburban towns and villages. Walk celebrates William Perry, the 'Tipton Slasher', a renowned 19th-century bareknuckle boxer born in Tipton in 1819.

Time: 2h30–4h30

Warnings: Over two miles through dark Netherton Tunnel (option).

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Boggy muddy ground at wetter times of year. Stafford Common is an unusually large surviving common land near a major Midlands centre with origins in medieval townland for grazing, protected by parliament 1839 and 1939.

Time: 3h30–7h30

Warnings: Comparatively busy road at Whitgreave; boggy ground when wet.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Similar walk: Slow Ways (inc. GPX).

Recommended: A level, well-surfaced canal towpath walk with no locks, easily wheeled and with a residential section at the Coseley end and pavement along a main road in central Wolverhampton. Can be a little overgrown in places in summer. Follows the Birmingham Canal towpath. Lots of waterfowl along the canal, including herons, mallards, swans, moorhens and coots. No facilities until the Wolverhampton end. Trains and buses at both ends.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Birmingham New Main Line Canal.

Time: 2h–3h30

Warnings: A quarter urban.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 4h30–9h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Great views to the northwest across Staffordshire. An enjoyable route on quiet lanes and pleasant footpaths, with some road walking at the start, gently rolling countryside with great views, an off-road stretch beside the Black Brook, a short canal towpath section and a final riverside path along the River Tame into Tamworth. Some stiles, occasional cattle and sandy ground near a quarry. Briefly joins the towpath of the Coventry Canal; the riverside Tame path passes a number of wartime pillboxes. Few facilities en route - 'The Pretty Route'.

Time: 4h–7h30

Lunch: An unnamed inn at Hopwas (roughly midway) and a bistro at Weeford beside the Black Brook.

Warnings: A few lanes have no verge; reaching Hopwas requires a short stretch of noisy roadside walking (with pavement). HS2 works cross the route but paths remain open and well managed.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 4h30–9h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 5h30–11h30

Walk details: Slow Ways.