Sometimes, when you’re craving nature but you only have a few hours, or no car access, you need something nearby and easy- so hopefully these suggestions will inspire you to get yourself into nature however your day is looking!
Although it is a big, vibrant city, bristol is super-close to some beautiful nature! This post introduces 3 of my favourite nature walks right on the city’s doorstep.
- Conham River Park and Avon Valley Trail
- Snuff Mills and Oldham Court
- Pill Path and Abbots Leigh

We tell you a little more about these walks below. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
1. Conham River Park and Avon Valley Trail

This is about a 4-mile trail that might take about 1hr30 to complete. It’s mostly a flat walk along with a river path with a little uphill to make a short circular loop at one end before turning back and heading home to the city. Click here for the All Trails link.
The path is well maintained and a lovely shady spot for a stroll at any time of year. It’s as beautiful in the snow as it is in the sunshine!

Walking along the riverside is such a soul-refreshing way to spend your time. The path is peaceful and has much more of a country feel than you would imagine, considering how close it is to the city!
2. Snuff Mills and Oldbury Court
Snuff Mills is a beautiful surprising little pocket of milling history, along the riverside. This is a lovely, woodland river path, snaking along the small river, past a couple of weirs and over a couple of bridges, and eventually up to Oldbury Court Estate, a large park with wildflower meadows and endless routes to stroll.

Now closed as a mill, there are still some charming old cottages, and a little hut selling teas, coffee and ice cream. There is also a tiny- gorgeous little botanical garden, with seasonal flowers and shrubs- totally unexpected in the area that is otherwise more woodland. find fabulous wild garlic all around in the spring!
It’s a 3-mile circular trail, it might take just over an hour to walk. Here is a link to the All Trails route.
The snuff Mills path actually has a beautiful, off-road link to Eastville park, meaning you can easily extend the route to include an extra little trail and walk around Eastville park lake if it takes your fancy.

3. Pill Path, Abbots Leigh, and Clifton
There are gorgeous walks, from Ashton Court, down through Leigh woods to the pill path, along the pill path, with magnificent views up at the suspension bridge, and along to Pill, just before the Avonmouth.

From Pill, you can walk back, along paths to Abbots Leigh and then back through Ashton Court to the top of the suspension bridge. This is a beautiful walk with quarries, fields and woodlands and it ends up in the beautiful Clifton Village. It is a long walk, this description follows a path that is around 8 miles (13km).

There is no Alltrails link for this route directly, but there are two longer routes, that can be shortened and adapted, and I still find the AllTrails route a useful guide to make sure you’re on the right path for the direction you want to go in!
This All Trails route takes a lovely route, between Pill and Ashton. This All Trails route is more direct but follows some sections of the road. It’s also significantly longer overall because they don’t end the walk in Clifton, you can end it anywhere of course- the app is just guidance.

We hope you found this post helpful and inspiring!