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Amazing walks along Britain's lost railways

The Monsal Trail - getty
The Monsal Trail - getty

‘Corridor to the past’ trumpets a lichen-encrusted signpost, indicating to the wide, curving path ahead of me. When a signpost sells a tarmac trudge like that, it’s hard not to feel intrigued. Had I chanced upon a time portal in the South Wales Valleys?

Not quite as it turned out, but perhaps the nearest thing: a lost railway.

Something about the words ‘dismantled railway’ on a map sends me into mild fits of excitement. Not in a weird way I hasten to add. It’s not an extremely niche fetish for ballast and rotting sleepers. But I suspect I’m not alone in harbouring a fascination for these ghostly lines – half- forgotten arteries of travel and trade. They’re a glimpse into a not-too-distant past, when everyone and everything went everywhere by rail. Many were remarkably short-lived – in use for barely a century – but they left lasting marks on the landscape. The track may be gone and the trains with it, but cuttings, embankments and crumbling platforms survive.

Lost railways, like the Welsh line I was walking, tickle our curiosity. Why were they built in the first place? Why abandon them decades later? For answers, we can first turn to the middle years of the 19th century, when Britain was in the grip of Railway Mania.

Bankrolled by speculators, new railways grew like tentacles into almost every corner of the land. By their peak in the 1930s the network totalled over 20,000 miles, but perhaps inevitably this tangled lattice of main lines and branches proved unsustainable. Between 1920 and 1990 around 10,000 miles of track were ripped up, leaving towns and villages cut off.

There was a silver lining to the closures, however. Give or take, a tenth of Britain’s dismantled railways are now footpaths, cycleways and pocket nature reserves. These gently graded paths enable everyone to enjoy easy, uncomplicated walking in beautiful surroundings.

Closed to passengers in January 1958, one such line was the Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway – the Heads of the Valleys Line. Shut five years before Dr Beeching’s infamous report sounded the death knell for many other rural routes, it ran high from Merthyr Tydfil to Abergavenny above the industrial valleys of South Wales. Today, where the old trackbed wasn’t lost to road building or development, it sees use as Route 46 – part of the National Cycle Network created by the charity Sustrans.

The line’s best-preserved miles twist 1,000 feet downhill through the leafy Clydach Gorge in the Brecon Beacons National Park, skimming the Blaenavon World Heritage Site between Brynmawrand Llanfoist. Threading around tunnels, overbridges and viaducts high above the deep gorge, it surely ranks among Britain’s best railway paths: a showstopping walk of nine miles if you press onto Abergavenny.

See www.visitblaenavon.co.uk for more information.

Clydach Gorge - getty
Clydach Gorge - getty
Four more walks along lost railway lines

South Tyne Trail

Branching from the Newcastle to Carlisle Railway to a remote Cumbrian town, the Alston Line opened in 1852. Remarkably, unreliable road links to Alston ensured its survival until 1976. Part of the line was reopened as the narrow-gauge South Tynedale Railway in 1983, sharing the trackbed with the South Tyne Trail. This 23-mile trail shadows the young river through the North Pennines AONB, from its headwaters on Alston Moor to Haltwhistle. On its route downriver, it steers across the 108-feet high Lambley Viaduct, spanning the South Tyne between the old stations at Lambley and Coanwood. See www.northpennines.org.uk/location/south-tyne-trail

Four more walks along England: Cinder Track (North York Moors), Keswick Railway Path (Cumbria), Hudson Way (East Yorkshire), Trans Pennine Trail. 

Lambley Viaduct - getty
Lambley Viaduct - getty

Glen Ogle Trail

Opened fully in 1880, the Callander & Oban Railway whisked tourists to the West Highlands and smoked fish to London. Part of the line remains in use today, but its spectacular miles hewn through Glen Ogle (described by a railway director as the ‘Khyber Pass of Scotland’) were closed in 1965. Since then, much of the trackbed between Callander and Killin has been repurposed as a walking and cycling route through the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park, part of the 96-mile Rob Roy Way – one of Scotland’s 29 Great Trails. See www.walkhighlands.co.uk/lochlomond/glen-ogle.shtml

Other great rail trails in Scotland: The Speyside Way (Highland/Moray), The Deeside Way (Ballater to Aboyne).

The Rob Roy Way - getty
The Rob Roy Way - getty

Downs Link

Among the first rail-to-trail routes toopen was the Downs Link, breathing new life into the former Cranleigh and the Steyning Lines, which fell victim to the Beeching axe in the 1960s. The 37-mile trail crossing the Weald from the North Downs to their southern counterparts retains numerous clues to its past use, including the old platforms of West Grinstead Station. See www.visitsurrey.com/things-to-do/downs-link-off-road-trail-p880591

Other great rail trails in the south of England: Granite Way (Devon), C&M Railway Path (Wilts), Parkland Walk (London), Meon Valley (Hampshire), Two Tunnels Greenway (Somerset).

Tissington Trail

Had it not been for withering line closures in the last century, it would be far easier to get around the Peak District by rail today. On the plus side, Britain’s first national park now boasts some ofthe country’s best railway paths. When the Monsal Trail’s famous viaducts and tunnels are busy with bank holiday foot and bicycle traffic, you’re guaranteed peace and quiet on the 13-mile Tissington Trail’s airy embankments. It follows the former Ashbourne Line above the White Peak’s lush dales. See www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/visiting/trails/tissington-trail

An old station building on the Tissington Trail - getty
An old station building on the Tissington Trail - getty

Other great rail trails in central and eastern England: Monsal Trail (Derbyshire), Severn Way (Ironbridge Gorge), Churnet Way (Oakmoor to Denstone), Flitch Way (Essex), Marriott’s Way (Norfolk).

This article first appeared in Country Walking magazine. Subscribe to the next three issues from £5 by visiting www.greatmagazines.co.uk/country-walking-magazine