The Best Walks Around Exeter: A Local’s Pick for River, Cathedral and Countryside

Pick any direction from the cathedral and you can find a decent walk in under ten minutes. That is the strange luxury of this city. The best walks around Exeter manage to weave river, history and proper countryside into routes you can finish before lunch, and you do not need a car to start most of them. This guide pulls together the half-dozen the locals actually use, with a note on surfaces, dogs and where to refuel afterwards.

Cathedral Green and the city core

Start where most people start: Cathedral Green. The grass in front of Exeter Cathedral is the city’s outdoor living room, and the loop from here through the Roman wall fragments behind the Princesshay shops is short, flat and free. From the Green, head north past the Royal Clarence and into Cathedral Yard, then aim for Northernhay Gardens. Said to be the oldest public open space in England (laid out in 1612), Northernhay sits above one of the better surviving stretches of city wall, and the path slips through into Rougemont Gardens, where William the Conqueror’s red-stone castle gatehouse still stands.

The whole circuit is under a mile on paved paths, buggy and wheelchair friendly, and you will pass enough plaques and benches to make it a slow hour rather than a brisk twenty minutes. Dogs are welcome on leads in both gardens.

Riverside walks from the Quayside

Walk down Fore Street to the Quayside and you are immediately on one of the prettiest stretches of working river in the South West. The Custom House, the warehouses now full of cafes, and the blue arc of Cricklepit Bridge are all within fifty paces of each other. Cross Cricklepit and turn left along the canal-side path. You can keep going as far as you like; the locals’ favourite short loop is to follow the canal to Trews Weir, cross back to the city side on the Trews Weir suspension bridge (built in 1935, still wobbling cheerfully) and return up the river path.

That is a comfortable two-mile loop on flat tarmac and packed gravel. Dogs love it, kids manage it, and there are three or four cafes for a finishing coffee. If you want a longer outing, the canal towpath runs roughly five miles south to Topsham, which we cover separately.

Out to Exwick and the western fields

For a walk that swaps cobbles for grass, head north along the riverside from the Quay. After Bonhay Road you reach Millers Crossing, the foot and cycle bridge above Blackaller Weir that links the city side to Exwick Playing Fields. Cross over and you are suddenly in a long green corridor of cricket pitches, willows and the modest little Exwick Bridge. Loop back into town via Station Road or keep going up to the Exwick Heights for a view back over the cathedral towers.

The full Exwick loop is around three miles, mostly level, and the surfaces are good enough for a road buggy. Parking is easiest at the Quay multi-storey, or you can come in by train to St Davids and pick up the river right outside.

Countryside on the city’s edge

Exeter sits in a bowl, which means countryside is genuinely close. Heading east through Heavitree brings you out at Ludwell Valley Park, a sloping patchwork of meadows and hedgerows with the city skyline on one side and grazing fields on the other. South of the river through St Thomas, you can pick up the Devon Coast to Coast cycle path and follow it as far as the Marsh Barton edge before turning back along the canal.

For a properly rural feel without leaving the bus map, try the lanes around Pinhoe and Stoke Hill. Either gives you the woods-and-fields experience inside forty minutes of the Guildhall.

Practical tips for walking in Exeter

The city is hillier than people expect. Cathedral Green to the Quay is downhill on the way there, and the climb back up Fore Street has caught out more than one visitor in summer sandals. Pack a layer; the river holds the wind even on warm days. Dogs are welcome on every walk listed here, on leads near livestock and the cathedral grounds. Public toilets are reliable at the Quayside, the Cathedral Green visitor centre and Princesshay.

For a slower kind of day, the best walks around Exeter pair well with a cathedral visit or an hour browsing the independent shops on Gandy Street.

Seasonal notes for walking the city

Each season changes the character of these routes. Spring brings cherry blossom along the cathedral close and bluebells in the woods on the Exwick side. Summer evenings on the Quayside have a riverside-pub feeling that lasts well into September, with paddleboarders sliding past the Cricklepit moorings. Autumn lights up the planes and limes in Northernhay and Rougemont, and the canal towpath south of the Quay is at its quietest. Winter is for the crisp morning loops; you can have Cathedral Green almost to yourself before 9am, and the frost catching the Roman wall behind Princesshay is a sight worth getting up early for.

If you want to head further afield by foot, our guide to Walking the Exe Valley Way picks up where the city paths end and follows the river north towards Brampford Speke.