Walks you can reach from Cannock by train

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

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

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

Canal towpath (Worcester and Birmingham Canal). Kings Norton was site of a 1642 English Civil War battle.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal.

Birmingham Back to Backs (National Trust)

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

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

Canal towpath, urban paths and suburban streets. Walk along the Worcester-Birmingham Canal from city centre to Cadbury's model village.

Waterway: four fifths along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal.

Birmingham Back to Backs (National Trust)

Time: 3h30 (2h walking, 1h30 lunch)

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

Canal towpaths throughout — rough track, grassy banks, tarmac sections — passing under multiple road and rail and motorway bridges. Follows the Ridgacre Branch Canal, joins the Walsall Canal, and finishes at the canal basin beside the New Art Gallery in Walsall town centre.

Waterway: almost all along the Walsall Canal.

Time: 5h (3h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: One dismantled footbridge requires a small detour via lockgate or road-bridge gap.

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

Mostly towpath along the Birmingham branch of the Grand Union Canal. Canal authorized in 1793 connecting Digbeth to Warwick; modernized in 1930s; freight traffic ceased by 1970s.

Waterway: four fifths along the Grand Union Canal.

Time: 5h (3h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Warnings: Some low bridges requiring ducking; steep ramp at end.

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

Towpaths and river banks. Urban walk tracing Birmingham's waterpower heritage from suburbs to city center.

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

Warnings: Busy roads to cross; low bridges on canal sections.

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

Recommended: Mostly good surfaces with a mix of recorded and unrecorded but well-surfaced tracks, crossing Cannock Chase access land and plus field paths at Bednall. Stiles and some flooding where the metalled path follows the Rising Brook; all road crossings are safe though not all have pedestrian control. A road-free alternative that misses the inn at Slitting Mill; follows the Heart of England Way to Springslade Lodge; a short detour reaches the Visitor Centre.

Woodland: a fifth under tree cover.

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

2 lunch spots: cannock-chase — the Cannock Chase Visitor Centre, or the Springslade Lodge

Warnings: Stiles and possible cattle on the field paths at Bednall; the path alongside the Rising Brook can be flooded; a short challenging section through the access land.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Great views over the Staffordshire country side and moorland. An easy, level towpath section along the Trent and Mersey Canal followed by undulating field paths over Staffordshire countryside, with a short climb out of Longdon to a viewpoint and a gentle crossing of farmland and a golf course. The canal is firm and easy; the field paths can be muddy in places and are poorly waymarked, with several awkward and overgrown stiles.

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

Lunch: At Armitage a pub, café and supermarket sit just off the route; Longdon has the last pub before Lichfield.

Warnings: The middle field section is poorly waymarked with several awkward or overgrown stiles, and the possibility of cattle. Some paths are little-walked and hard to locate when crops are high. Refreshments are limited in the middle, so go prepared.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

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

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 5h (3h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)

Walk details: Slow Ways.

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

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A long, flat and easy route that is mostly off-road towpath, following the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and then the Trent and Mersey Canal, with short stretches of riverside path, pavement and rough grassy track. Mostly a made-up surface, though some towpath sections are muddy and the riverside meadows can flood after heavy rain. Follows canal towpaths almost the whole way and can be split at intermediate points; passes near Shugborough Park. Trains and buses serve both ends.

Waterway: almost all beside rivers and canals.

Shugborough Estate (National Trust)

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

Lunch: A farm shop and cafe at Great Haywood Junction, plus pubs a short walk off the towpath at Little Haywood and Wolseley Bridge.

Warnings: The Sow Leisure Route and riverside flood meadows can be wet or flooded after heavy rain, sometimes needing detours, and there may be cattle in one short field section. One stile.

Walk details: Slow Ways.