Weather allowing the festive break between Christmas and New Year is a perfect time to go for a walk.
Friends and families marooned together with little to do except watch TV, flick through books and social media and pick and sip at leftovers, are typically happy to get out the house into the open air, once they’ve been enticed.
The walks listed below offer easy to medium difficulty walking over short to middling distances (i.e. nothing longer than half a day, most only a few hours). There is something to pique the interest of everybody, from hikes in the most rural parts of the Midlands to suburban and inner-city wanders in some of the most urban bits. Each walk combines a fantastic mixture of scenery, history and places to stop and relax, whether you’re into river banks, hilltops, canal boats, stately homes once owned by dissolute aristocratic poets, old steam pumping stations or gargantuan concrete motorway interchanges.
Merry Christmas and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year to you and yours. Happy walking.
Urban Winter Water Walking
Birmingham – Smethwick Walk primarily along the Birmingham Canal Navigation Main Line from central Birmingham to vibrant, multicultural and deeply historically important Smethwick.
Check Out Lord Byron’s Hall
Newstead Abbey Gentle walk from Hucknall Railway Station via the village of Linby to Newstead Abbey the ancestral seat of the romantic poet Lord Byron.
Rural Winter Water Walking
Droitwich Spa – Worcester Walk along the Droitwich Canal to where it joins the River Severn, then along the banks of the River Severn into the cathedral city of Worcester.
Suburban Winter Water Walking
Coseley – Bradley Short Black Country walk between Coseley and Bradley primarily along the Bradley Arm Canal, a green and often beautiful canal backwater.
Walking From the Earl of Leicester’s Red Castle
Kenilworth – University of Warwick Walk from Kenilworth along greenways and across fields to the University of Warwick’s campus on the edge of Coventry.
Peak Christmas as Britain’s Highest Village
Buxton – Flash From Buxton up into the Peak District Hills and across Axe Edge Moor, to Flash, a village 463m above sea level called “Britain’s highest settlement”.
Wintery Walk Near the Head of Trent
Knypersley Reservoir Varied urban, suburban and rural walk from Stoke-on-Trent along the Caldon Canal to the Head of Trent Valley, then up to Knypersley Reservoir.
Congregate at a Concrete Cathedral
Spaghetti Junction Walk from New Street Railway Station in Birmingham city centre, to the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, and on towards the Gravelley Hill Interchange aka Spaghetti Junction.
Winter Walking at the West Midlands Big Little Peak
Wychbury Hill Walk from Stourbridge to Hagley across the wild, mysterious and beautiful Wychbury Hill. A significant local landmark with connections to strange occurances.
Peak Industrial Heritage Winter Water Walking
Ambergate – Cromford Walk along a preserved section of the Cromford Canal from Ambergate to Cromford. Part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.
Christmas at a Municipally Owned Mansion on the Edge of Nottingham
Wollaton Deer Park and Hall Walk from the heart of Nottingham to Wollaton Deer Park and Hall on the city’s outskirts.
Congregate at an Actual Cathedral
Fiskerton – Southwell Short countryside walk between the railway station at Fiskerton and the historic little cathedral town of Southwell.
Hobbiton Christmas?
Stourbridge – Kinver Walk from Stourbridge along canal towpaths and across fields to Kinver at the southern tip of Staffordshire known for Kinver Edge and rock houses.
Wintery Railway Ruins
Dowery Dell Viaduct Walk from Birmingham into Worcestershire to the site of the former Dowery Dell Viaduct. Only ruins remain, but you can still get a sense of its scale and grandeur.