From heritage trails & gentle seaside strolls to right old Suffolk rambles
Walks & Trails in & around Aldeburgh
Historic Aldeburgh and the area of outstanding natural beauty around Thorpeness and Snape are ideal for walkers or those up for exploring even just a little way on foot. Fancy a directed potter along the beach? A wander back through time? A Suffolk station-to-station hike perhaps? Or maybe just a spot of walkies with a four-legged friend?
Walk this way for digital app-based walks, leaflet downloads and maps to plan both your gentle or more challenging walking adventures. For longer countryside walks, it’s also a good idea to have OS Explorer Map 212 to hand.
Town Centre Heritage Walks & Digital Trails
Walk the alleyways, snaking footpaths, streets and steps to discover all the colours and layers of heritage town Aldeburgh. Look out for architectural surprises, plaques recalling famous residents or firsts and little hints of what used to be. Look up for sundials and roses ’round doors, whacky weather vanes and even a buxom bowsprit!
TOP TIP The Aldeburgh Pocket Guide Town & Country Heritage Walk has something for everyone, with plenty of fun facts and animals, famous people and literary connections and ship shapes (nautical plaques) to keep an eye out for.
Coast & Countryside
Set out along Aldeburgh’s coast and close-to-the-river paths on circular or linear walks. Enjoy a gentle 2 mile stroll to Thorpeness to be wooed by Edwardian whimsy and follow the village’s heritage trail to understand all the intricacies of this intriguing place. Or head out to Snape for a pub lunch, and feast upon the sights of wonderful wildlife along the way.
Enjoy pre-prepared walks or have OS Explorer Map 212 to hand – check out the Suffolk Outdoors App – see below. It’s a must if you plan to improvise or explore more on route!
Villages Info Thorpeness TrailTrails of the Unexpected
Discover the lost harbourlands of Slaughden, where wildflowers and waders colour the saltings beautiful and sails still catch the wind on the River Alde. Look down towards Orford and the mysterious masts and shapes on the horizon.
Walk to the viewing platforms at The Haven to watch the birdlife and imagine Drake’s ‘Pelican’ being built alongside other Tudor galleons. Just a little further and Thorpeness is a whole land of make-believe with migrating windmills to a house in the clouds.
Villages Info
Nature Reserves
There’s a whole clutch of nature reserves in and around Aldeburgh, ideal for bird and wildlife watching and walking. The remarkably wide range of habitats – heathland, saltmarsh, woodland, vegetated shingle – mean that there are varied, abundant and often rare plants and wildflowers to spot too.
You can even encounter a whole line of different habitats on just one walk – read about the Sailors’ Path below!
Walks & Trails About the ReservesGo the Extra Mile
No stranger to striding out? Love that feeling of arriving at a destination under your own steam? Aldeburgh, Snape and Thorpeness are served by several long distance trails.
The 60 mile Suffolk Coast Path / King Charles III England Coast Path from Felixstowe to Lowestoft links to the Stour & Orwell Path (south) and the Angles Way Path (north). The 59 mile Sandlings Walk (Ipswich to Southwold) doubles up with it in places, connecting precious areas of heathlands.
There’s a super series of waymarked East Suffolk Line Walks from local railway stations too. Why not take the train to Saxmundham and head via Snape to Aldeburgh’s coast?
Station to Station Walks Long Distance Trails
Spotlight on the Sailors’ Path
The Sailors’ Path is an historic countryside walking route between Aldeburgh and Snape. It runs parallel to the River Alde and at 6 miles, makes for a hearty 2.5 hour walk.
Over the centuries it has been a rural highway between the countryside and the coast for ‘greenhand’ sailors (agricultural-workers-cum-fishermen), laundry girls from the local villages, and for 18th century smugglers moving their contraband inland.
Today it welcomes leisure-seeking explorers, crossing through a varied selection of wildlife habits via paths, tracks and boardwalks. Bookended by wonderful nature reserves, it also links to the seasonal Snape to Iken riverside path on the other side of the River Alde.
River Encounters at Hazlewood Marshes
The off-road Sailors’ Path from Aldeburgh starts opposite the Golf Club, passing the site of WWI Air Station, Hazlewood Aerodrome, and Hazlewood Marshes Nature Reserve.
Don’t miss a detour down past salt-skeleton trees and haunting mudflat channels to the Reserve’s Barber’s Point bird hide, close to the breached river wall and world of waders and early settler connections. It’s out of this world, and definitely a place to take the binoculars!
Info & Trail Map
Snape Marshes
Snape Marshes Nature Reserve is surely one of Suffolk’s most inspirational riverside landscapes. Located along the final section of the Sailors’ Path before Snape, it is also close to the tufty gorse-covered slopes of Snape Warren. Both are home to iconic River Alde views, all sorts of unusual wildlife and bird calls and a very special sort of Suffolk peace.
Info & Trail Map Villages Info
Make the Most of the Suffolk Heritage Coast around Aldeburgh
Check out what’s where from car parks to ‘coffee & cake’ stops, or town, coast or country cottages, hotels and campsites to tempt you to stay a little longer. Track down must-visit shops to bag your best beach picnic ever. Or why not scroll through the full collection of walks and bike rides to download maps and directions for your next Aldeburgh and Suffolk Coast adventure?
More Tips for Walkers
- Countryside Code I Download
- Suffolk’s Pedestrian-friendly ‘Quiet Lanes’ I Find out more
- Discover Suffolk Mobile App I Find out more
- Walking with your Dog I Dog-friendly Aldeburgh
