Mud free walks ideas

As our climate changes and we experience more extreme weather, we are likely to see more wet winters (and autumns and springs) bringing heavier downpours and more flooding.  All of which means more mud in the places we like to walk.

Walking in mud is not only tiresome and tiring, but also makes accidents much more likely as we slip and slide about, trying to hang onto barbwire fences and tree-branches to keep our feet dry. 

With this in mind, we are building a list of mud free walks. Of course we can't guarantee they will be absolutely 100% mud free all of the time, but they will certainly be walks which won't involve trudging through repeated sections of repeated squelchy mud. We hope this will build over time into a useful database for everyone who walks in and around London, including our many Ramblers walk leaders.

We welcome your ideas to add to this database - and your feedback should you come across sections of mud on any of the walks. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Huge thanks to Andrew Hunt and Micky Kohn for getting us started with this collection. The walks are presented in a variety of different formats / levels of detail.

Ideas for walks

The Green Link Walk from Wood Street, Walthamstow to Peckham, split into four sections, should be entirely mud-free (except potentially the short section on the edge of Epping Forest between the official start and Wood Street station).

Section 12 of the Green Chain Walk from Eltham to Greenwich (5.5 miles) is almost exclusively on tarmac. There is a very short section on grass in Kidbrooke Green Park; it's possible to skirt any flooded sections by the river in Sutcliffe Park and to stay on tarmac in Queenscroft recreation Ground with only a small alteration to the route

On the Capital Ring, Section 11 - Hendon Park to Highgate  (5.6 miles) and Section 14 - Hackney Wick to Beckton District Park (4.8 miles) are mud-free.

Much of The Thames Path in central London is mud-free and one new idea is Blackfriars to Battersea Power Station taking in the new Tideway Thames embankments and quays developed from the super-sewer works such as the Bazalgette Embankment at Blackfriars and The Isle of Effra at Vauxhall (crossing Westminster Bridge is a good option).

Our London Strollers group walks almost exclusively within London, and the majority of their walks are likely to be mud-free - you can find their programme here.