100 Walks Around Bristol - Here's Six of the Best

Since 2023, I have been doing station-to-station walks, starting from Bristol Temple Meads and travelling in all directions, towards: Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Hampshire and South Wales.  I recently celebrated reaching 100 walks, a total of 1003 miles, so an average of ten miles per walk, although the range is wide, from 3 miles to 18.  They also vary enormously in the terrain they cover, and their level of difficulty.  

Here, I have chosen six of the best: two easy, two moderate and two difficult.  Follow the links and you will find more detailed descriptions, a map and a gpx file.  You can download them directly if you have a (free) Outdooractive account.  If not, you can find them via the the searchable table on this page.  (They are also on our Railwalks' supporters page, but until we get the new system, this is the easiest way to see them.)

Easy

Freshford to Bradford-on-Avon (Wiltshire): 4 miles


A short, flat and easy station-to-station walk - 4 flat miles along the River Avon through some beautiful scenery. Read more...

Mottisfont to Dean (Hampshire): 5 miles


A flat station-to-station walk along the River Dun and through grazing countryside and some picturesque villages.  Read more...

Moderate

Dilton Marsh to Westbury (Wiltshire) via the White Horse: 9 miles





Westbury's white horse is one of the best-known landmarks in southwest England.  This walk climbs the hill to the ridgeway which leads alongside it, with panoramic views over several miles.  Read more...

Stroud to Cam and Dursley via the Cotswolds Way: 13 miles



A walk along the Cotswolds Way, along the edge of the Cotswolds Ridge, sometimes in woodland, sometimes with long panoramic views towards the Severn estuary.  Read more...

Difficult

I have made a great discovery whilst doing these walks, about the South Wales valleys.  If, like me, you had a vague impression of a post-industrial wasteland along here, you could be in for a wonderful surprise.  The mines and much of the heavy industry closed down some time ago and nature has lost no time in reclaiming the landscape.  There are railway lines running up seven of the valleys, much improved in recent years, particularly by the South Wales Metro.  This area offers something very rare - the opposite to climb mountains by rail, crossing from one valley to the next.  Here are two of my favourite examples.

Maesteg to Treorchy: 11 miles



A wild and mountainous walk, crossing three of the Welsh valleys. It had some real mountainous terrain, a bit of climbing with hands and a narrow path above a sheer drop, from where I took the first photo above.  Read more...

Pontypool to Abergavenny: 15 miles



A wild, remote and strenuous walk through the fringes of the Brecon beacons.  Note that there is a particularly steep descent towards the end of this walk - not for beginners or people with physically constraints.  Read more...

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