Reading Walks Festival 2025

Welcome to the Reading Walks Festival 2025. We are delighted to share 50 walks with you over the nine days of the festival, bringing alive the stories, heritage and landscapes of Reading and the surrounding countryside through a series of guided walks.

Our emphasis for the Reading Walks Festival is as much about telling the stories of Reading as walking for its own pleasure, so you’ll find that our volunteer guides have lots to share with you along the way. Our walks range from one-hour short walks to a 2-day pilgrimage and even a cycle ride!

Reading has 1000 years of history to share, from a centre of medieval religion to Victorian industrial powerhouse – the stories live on in our urban townscape. And with the Thames, River Kennet and Kennet & Avon Canal flowing through the town, Reading also has lovely waterside walks, while the surrounding countryside offers easy access to green space in the Chilterns, Hampshire and West Berkshire.

The majority of the programme of walks cost just £3 although some will have a higher price if provided by a professional organisation.

Reading is a great location for a walks festival. Excellently served by public transport, it is easy to reach by bus and rail – and indeed most of our walks start/end points can be reached by public transport so please join the 71% of people who travelled by bus, train, bicycle or on foot last year if you can, to help us minimise the festival carbon footprint.

You can keep in touch with this year’s festival by subscribing to our mailing list at readingwalksfestival.org. Please do support the festival through your own channels. We would welcome any approaches to  help us get the word out. You will find us on social channels #readingwalksfest