Walks you can reach from Atherstone by train

Parks, river, country park and canal.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

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

1 lunch spot: the Stag and Pheasant (2h in)

5 end-of-walk rewards: the Lord Hop, the Felix Holt, the George Eliot Hotel, the Black Swan In Hand, or the Silk Mill

Adapted from: the Leicester Ramblers.

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

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Time: 7h (5h walking, 1h30 lunch, 30m break)

2 lunch spots: the Tame Otter (2h15 in), or the Red Lion (2h15 in)

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

Warnings: MOD firing range — check access.

Adapted from: the Leicester Ramblers.

Canal towpath, riverside path and village lanes.

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

Walk details: Heart Rail Trails (PDF).

Mostly on canal towpaths. Through Anglo-Saxon Mercia's territory, passing sites associated with Queen Æthelflæd.

Waterway: four fifths along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.

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

Warnings: Heavy traffic on narrow ancient bridge across River Tame near Water Orton.

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

Varied suburban and exurban and rural terrain. Connects Sutton Coldfield to historic cathedral city of Lichfield via Anglo-Saxon Shenstone and Roman remains at Wall where Watling Street and Icknield Street met.

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

Warnings: Camp Road has high traffic, tight bends and heavy lorries; M6 Toll, A5, A5148 crossings; low-hanging power lines.

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: 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).

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

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).

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

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).

Recommended: A very easy, level walk almost entirely along the Coventry Canal towpath, on compacted-stone towpath and pavement, with no gates or stiles. A short noisy section leaving Tamworth and then quiet side streets and open countryside. Passes the Hodge Lane Nature Reserve and Pooley Country Park (public toilets at the visitor centre). The Staffordshire–Warwickshire border is a stream crossing under the canal.

Waterway: four fifths along the Coventry Canal.

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

Lunch: A pub at Alvecote Marina, roughly midway. Pubs and shops at the Polesworth end; eateries and shops in Polesworth village.

Warnings: The road into Tamworth can be quite busy mid-afternoon. Polesworth has just one train a day.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: A scenic, mostly off-road route through Milton Keynes connecting green spaces by footpaths, ramps and wide underpasses, well segregated from traffic. Surfaces vary from grass, compacted mud and stone and wood bark to mostly tarmac. There are kissing gates and an avoidable flight of steps.

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

Warnings: Kissing gates at the Woburn Sands end may restrict accessibility. One avoidable flight of steps near Peartree Bridge. Steps down to the Grand Union Canal can be bypassed by ramp.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

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.

Recommended: A place of quiet delight, and in autumn, a painter's palette spilled across the woodland floor; The Chase... is a place of enchantment. A tried-and-tested off-road walk through woodland nature parks, alongside a railway and brooks, over the open heath and forest of Cannock Chase, with brief, benign urban sections. Gentle climbs; no stiles, only gates and steps and bridges. A worn verge provides safe passage near Hazelmoor Farm. Crosses Cannock Chase, noted for its deer. Uses well-used local paths not marked on OS maps (look for Stookie's Alley and other unmarked turnings). A detour via Canrug-2 reaches the visitor centre.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

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

Lunch: A choice of refreshment, a pub chain and a large supermarket in Hednesford mid-route, plus a detour to the Chase visitor centre.

Warnings: A sign on the Chase reports cattle as summer visitors.

Walk details: Slow Ways.