Exploring Canal Towpaths for Easy Flat Walks

Canal towpaths are one of Britain's most underrated walking resources. They were engineered for horses hauling narrowboats, which means they were built level, drained and continuous — exactly the qualities that make a walk gentle on the legs. Whether you have half an hour to fill between appointments or a whole day to spend, there is almost certainly a stretch of canal within reach of where you live.

Why Towpaths Suit Almost Every Walker

The gradient is the main draw. Between locks the water sits perfectly level, and even a lock flight usually climbs only a few metres over a couple of hundred paces. That means you can cover real distance without ever feeling a hill in your calves, and you can turn round at any point without having to climb back out of a valley.

Water does the rest of the work. A canal gives you constant movement and colour — moorhens sculling into the reeds, a heron standing statue-still on the off bank, the flash of a kingfisher if you are lucky, and the slow theatre of a boat working through a lock. In winter the same stretch offers bare hedgerows, frost on the puddles and far longer views through the trees.

Practically, the best-surfaced stretches are suitable for pushchairs, wheelchairs and anyone who finds stiles and uneven ground difficult. There are no gates to wrestle with, no livestock to edge past and no route-finding to speak of. Follow the water and you cannot go far wrong.

Before You Set Off: Reading the Route

Towpaths vary enormously in quality, so a little homework pays off. Run through these points before you commit to a long walk:

• Surface: popular urban stretches are often tarmac or finely crushed stone; rural stretches can be grass, mud or compacted towpath earth that turns greasy after rain.
• Locks and flights: a single lock is a mild step up or down; a flight of a dozen means a steady ramp for several hundred metres and a change in water level you will need to reverse on the way back.
• Access points: bridges, lock cottages and road crossings are your entry and exit points. Note them — they are also where you will find parking, bus stops and pubs.
• Linear or circular: most towpath walks are linear, so either plan a return leg on public transport or accept walking the same stretch back in reverse, which looks surprisingly different.
• Closures: banking repairs, fallen trees and lock maintenance occasionally shut a section. Check locally, or have a fallback stretch in mind.

Towpath Etiquette and Company

Towpaths are shared spaces, and a little courtesy makes everyone's walk better. Cyclists should give way to walkers, but they often approach silently, so keep an ear open and avoid stepping sideways without a glance behind. Anglers set long poles across the path; give them room and keep dogs close and under control near their pegs. Moored boats have ropes and gangplanks stretching across the towpath — step over, never on, and pass quietly, as people may be sleeping inside.

Dogs are welcome on almost all towpaths but should be on a lead near locks, anglers and other boats. Locks themselves deserve respect: the edges are unfenced, the water is deep, and the mechanisms are heavy. Keep children close and never let anyone sit on a lock gate.

Stretches Worth Trying First

These are all level or nearly so, with easy access at both ends:

• Llangollen Canal, north Wales: the walk across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is barely 300 metres but unforgettable — narrow, high and perfectly flat. Not one for anyone uneasy with heights.
• Kennet and Avon Canal, Wiltshire: Bradford on Avon to Avoncliff is roughly three miles of level water, with an aqueduct and a riverside pub at the far end.
• Leeds and Liverpool Canal, North Yorkshire: Gargrave to Skipton runs about five miles through gentle farmland, with a railway station at Skipton for the return.
• Grand Union Canal, Hertfordshire: Berkhamsted to Tring is a comfortable six miles, wooded in places, with nearby stations at either end.
• Union Canal, central Scotland: Falkirk to Linlithgow stretches around eight miles of flat, open walking, passing the Falkirk Wheel early on.
• Basingstoke Canal, Hampshire: Fleet to Odiham offers a gentle five miles of clear water and heathland edge, with several road bridges for shorter options.

Weather, Season and Small Comforts

Towpaths sit low and beside water, so they hold frost and mist longer than the surrounding fields and can flood after heavy rain. In winter, expect mud in the shaded cuttings and take poles if your balance is uncertain. In summer, the same tree lines that shelter you from sun also shelter midges, particularly on still evenings in Scotland and the north.

Comfortable waterproof boots are the single best investment; trainers will do on tarmac stretches in dry weather, but not much else. Take a flask, and remember that waterside pubs cluster near locks and bridges — a genuine advantage of canal walking, and one of the reasons a towpath ramble so often turns into a very good day out.