Enjoy a riverside walk

Just the sight of water can be enough to cool down a hot August day. Meandering along a footpath in tall grasses under the canopies of trees and it's even more of a sanctuary from the beating sun.

Follow its lead as it courses through farmland and meadows, drawing you into a myriad landscapes embroidered with butterflies. Banks welcome you to pause, picnic and catch a glimpse of resident wildlife - you may even be lucky enough to spot a kingfisher - while the river's hypnotic flow is broached only by fish that break the water's surface, like the sounds of heavy raindrops.

Find a river walk near you

For Ordnance Survey riverside walks across the country, click here. The UK Rivers Network offers information about walking and cycling across Britain's waterways and Waterscape provides a map of the country's rivers and canals. Details of The Rivers Access Campaign can be found here. 

Useful reads

Try Country Living Magazine's regular contributor 'Christopher Somerville's Fifty Best River Walks of Britain' (Michael Joseph).

For ways to entertain children, consult'A Walk by the River' (Heinemann Library) by Jo Walters, part of the Nature Detectives series, and 'By the River' by Clare Collinson (Franklin Watts).

Riverside walks around the country

The River Alness, Ross-shire 

The River Arun, West Sussex

The River Ayr, Ayrshire

The River Beaulieu, Hampshire

The River Chess, Buckinghamshire

The River Cocker, Cumbria

The River Devon, Clackmannanshire

The River Eden, Cumbria

The River Hogsmill, Surrey

The River Otter, Devon

The River Ouse, East and West Sussex

The River Severn, Cambrian Mountains, Wales

The River Thames at Goring, Oxfordshire

The River Wey, Surrey

The River Wye, English-Welsh borders

The River Yeo, Somerset