European Railroad Discussion > UK: circular walks begin and end at train stations

A short guide to walking on public trails a short distance from London. The walks begin and end at train stations, often the same one.  Walks are 2-12 miles

From Pathfinder Guides:  I did it by following the maps and text in the lightweight guidebook “The Home Counties From London by Train: Outstanding Circular Walks” (£12.99, or about $16, Milestone Publishing).


Paywall possible:  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/travel/walking-trails-near-london.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/23 07:23 by Lackawanna484.

That's one of a series of books covering the UK.

The publisher is Ordnance Survey (OS) - essentially the official map making organisation in the UK. In the book you will find copies of the 1:50000 scale (slightly better than 1 inch = 1 mile) map covering the area of the walk along with detailed directions and comments about points of interest. OS publish paper maps at various scales. The 1:50000 and 1:25000 maps cover the whole country. As well as paper you can get them on your phone etc.   They have a subscription to the electronic service for the whole country for about GBP30.00 per year.

They license their maps to many other organisations. In the past they included some tiny, deliberate, errors and a good few years ago they used those errors to sue a company that did not have a licence but was using OS mapping as the bese for their own maps. OS won!

The UK is covered not just by roads but also by a network of other "rights of way" some of which can only be used on foot, others on foot or horseback and all shown on OS maps (it's different in Scotland and Northern Ireland). Such rights of way are usually unpaved and can be a little difficult to find but they sometimes cross railways (even sections with 125mph operations) at grade. Obviously, all the safety rules that are appropriate in the USA apply (plus a few more in particular don't deviate from the crossing, don't wander off along the side of the ballast) but they can provide some good lineside positions.

I can't give you all the rules/laws or give you a class on how to use OS maps but compared to anything I've ever been able to find in the USA they are extraordinarily comprehensive.

Good info, thanks!

Posted from Android

Oh to be in England.  What a great way to spend a pleasant morning/afternoon.

This is an example of an OS 1:50000 scale map, which I was using today for some shots of aggregate trains on the Berks & Hants line west of London. You can see the railway line (the red dot is the station), the surrounding roads, the Kennet and Avon Canal. The green dotted lines are the public rights of way which Hartington referred to, common in England and Wales, less so in Scotland, where there's a general 'right to roam'. One of them is the towpath along the canal, which parallels the railway to the next station east, Kintbury.

East of the built up area of Hungerford there's an area of land with a beige border and beige background, that identifies 'open access' land, on which you're free to wander. I don't think we Brits realise how lucky we are to have OS maps and to have them so readily available.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/23 09:04 by 86235.

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great resource, wish we had it in USA! Charlie Rice

Charles Rice
Saint Louis, MO