In the first part a clearly marked route along the estuary and then over the bridge (which is sometimes closed, for high winds or other reasons). best to check if in doubt as there is no alternative once you get to the bridge. The walk was safe, great views and easy to follow....

Tim Ryan

It also misses using a cycle path to avoid some road walking in the Avonmouth Area. Another minor quibble is that it is longer and I think unnecessarily effortful (though undoubtedly enjoyable) to walk up the hill into Kingsweston and back down again in the middle section of the walk after the M5 motorway bridge crossing, when there is a more direct route using the cycle path by Lawrence Weston instead. I have shared Poraus 4 to show what I consider to be some better options....

Mockymock

It uses a lot of waterside and wetland paths, crosses the Avon motorway bridge on a noisy but exhilarating footway, follows off-road cycle paths snaking around the docks and their associated industrial areas, and then the final section along the estuarine coast from just south of Severn Beach on up towards Aust is undisputed five star walking....

Mockymock

Can't in all conscience give this route 5*, it is a good route, easy enough to follow, but like many places in South Glos, the stiles and gates can leave a lot to be desired, as can the terrain underfoot. Great views of the bridge from Aust, but you can't help but be slightly distracted by the huge office building behind it. The fields are not always the easiest to navigate but having the route GPX does help....

Luke B

A pleasant, gentle walk, embracing views of the Severn Bridge and estuary and the generally flat countryside from Aust to Thornbury. One minor uphill section that required steps, and elsewhere a small number of stiles and kissing gates but otherwise easy going. Don't forget The Boar's Head in Aust, The White Hart on the way and the plethora of pubs and cafes in Thornbury!...

Mark Dolling

The walk up Hollywood Lane was particularly nice and at the top of it is where it all changed from being a rural walk into being an urban walk. Photo 7 - Charlton Walk (around the west and south of Filton Aerodrome)...

Paul Chilcott

You can choose which side of the bridge you walk on, so you can select the windward side to avoid the impact of the vehicle exhausts. Photo 1 - The "old" bridge from just outside Aust...

Paul Chilcott

This walk is a combination of Calche2 and Cheaus1 Slow Ways with a little bit of the Wales Coast Path linking them up for the middle section....

Paul Chilcott

We walked this route from Thornbury to Aust (and back via a slightly different route, see a new alternative). The first third from Thornbury (alongside the golf course) was often quite overgrown, with narrow and high stiles, some tangled with brambles and nettles....

conoroneilluk

In general the path crosses several stiles, kissing gates, farm gates and pedestrian access gates within farm gates....

David Sutton

The route crosses the unseen main Swansea to London railway line in the Severn Tunnel directly beneath the junction of Pill Row and Symonds Cliff Road and then crosses the Newport > Chepstow > Gloucester line via a level crossing (photo 2). Passing through a classic "Edgelands" landscape, the route passes the western abutment of the Second Severn Crossing (photo 3) before continuing east beside or atop the flood embankment. Another of this Slow Way's varied encounters is to cross the railway line (photo 11) that links South Wales to Gloucester, alongside the Severn estuary and via a Brunel railway bridge over the River Wye at Chepstow. A second point to add is that the authorities reserve the right to close the two shared ways (upstream and downstream) and that a route variation along the upstream way may be needed if the downstream way (on the Calaus route) is closed (photo 13). Once over the old Severn Bridge the route bears away from the M48 to approach the crossing of the A403, necessary to reach Aust village....

nichowes

A more comfortable route is via the between-hedgerow lane a little to the south, leaving the road at a bend at GR 603896. - there were cattle in the two fields immediately before joining another between-hedgerow lane called Bond Lane!...

Alan Morris

However, when I did my walk, there was a herd of frisky bullocks on the path to the east, and some cattle on the path to the west....

Alan Morris

I found the path more attractive after Cribbs Causeway. When I walked the path, the path went along the boundary of active building work at two points. - at the point where the path turns from due west to north-west to head towards Cribbs Causeway, the path on the ground is on the other side of the field boundary from what is on both the Slow Ways map and on OS....

Alan Morris

This is a great route, particularly north of the M5 bridge. I prefer an alternative route to the east, even though it is two sides of a triangle and therefore longer. There is an alternative route to the west of the Bilsham Farm, which is passable, but there were cattle on that route too when I walked it...

Alan Morris

Easy flat walk with the chance to visit the museum of the railway tunnel in Sudbrook and the historic village of Mathern, with the church dedicated to St Tewdric, once King of Gwent who is interred there, and the private Palace of Mathern, which apparently has grade 2 listed pigsties....

Steve_Roser

As you approach the bank of the river, the spans of the 1990s new Severn crossing bridge become visible ahead, the route heads along the sea defences above the saltmarsh on a good path to Sudbrook. The Slow Way now nears the old Severn Bridge, and arrives via an anciently churchy end of the village of Mathern, followed by a path edging of a zone of massive warehousing which is so well landscaped that you hardly know they are there until the final approach to the bridge. As it arrives alongside the M48, the path dips down and the Wales Coast Path departs left through the motorway underpass into Chepstow while the Slow Way continues on, heading uphill again to join the two and a half miles of the cycle/footway across the old Severn Bridge. Despite being hard by the motorway (and a motorway service station rather ghostly since the M4 was rerouted to the new bridge in the 1990s), Aust is a quiet little place with a good pub. The nearest is either back in Chepstow, or several miles further on south at Severn Beach (good rail links) or the village of Easter Compton (some buses), both of which are reachable using ongoing Slow Ways....

Mockymock

This is an excellent alternative routing of this long Slow Way while the more obvious route along the River Severn continues to be blocked by major flood works. Note that the section across the Severn Vale from Easter Compton to Aust will be a struggle when the ground is saturated (as it has been all winter and early Spring 2023/4) unless you don't mind very soggy conditions and a bit of wading through standing water. From there it is footpaths through pastures and long stretches of track across the Severn Vale to Easter Compton. Eventually, after crossing over the M4, under the mainline railway at Pilning, and the access road to The Wave (an artificial surfing lake), the route arrives at the village of Easter Compton and picks up the waymarked Community Forest Path. Note that the plot going out of Easter Compton goes through the car park of the village hall rather than down the marked footpath on the other side of it for some reason, but this is a minor oddity. As you climb, big views open out across the Severn Vale and over to Wales. At the bottom the path heads in through some pony paddocks (the slow way plot is again the correct way here) before crossing the railway into the edge of Bristol at Henbury. Here I would recommend skipping the nice but fiddly detour round the back of the school on the Community Forest path that the the slow way plot follows, and just go straight along the suburban B-road. Here the Slow Way again takes an unnecessarily long way round on the Community Forest Path, routing from Blaise castle museum down into the wooded, limestone valley before climbing up a steep, stony path through to get back out again....

Mockymock

I love the extensive views along the Severn estuary towards the new bridge, and being high up above the river. I walked from Aust to Chepstow, and it was interesting to look back at the cliff on the England side when I was a short way across the bridge, to see the distinct layers in the rock....

Mary Oz

It was lovely to reach the quieter road at the top of Almondsbury. Before heading down the footpath I went a few steps beyond, to see the great view across the Severn estuary with its two huge bridges. The footpath down Almondsbury Hill was quite steeply downhill. For those heading up this hill, there are a couple of benches where you can get your breath back....

Mary Oz

I walked the route from Aust to Bradley Stoke. The route heads out of Aust along a track and reaches an area where a new wetland is being created as part of major flood defence works on the River Severn. Just north of the M4, the Slow Way joins a track over the motorway, arriving at a minor road by Greenditch Farm. There is then getting on for a mile of (safe) walking along the pavement by this major road and a crossing of a motorway junction (at traffic lights), and another big roundabout (ditto) before the route takes to pathways through the modern housing estates to get to the massive shopping centre at Bradley Stoke....

Mockymock

This has now been removed, after a change in the network, with Aust being added as a Slow Ways place. I walked Filton to Aust. Once through Catbrain, then around the edge of the monster Cribb's Causeway shopping centre and across the main road, it is all change as the Slow Way heads down into the Severn Vale. Approaching Aust, the Slow Way goes through a new wetland which has been created as part of major flood defence works along the River Severn....

Mockymock

The crossing of the A403 just out of Aust is not as fearsome as it looks because is an old main road dating back to the days before the Second Severn Crossing was built and far less used now, so safe....

Mockymock

I originally walked this as part of a now-deleted Slow Way between Thornbury and Chepstow (Aust has recently been added as a Slow Ways place)....

Mockymock

The walk out to the bridge through Chepstow was through steep sided woodland and ver pleasant....

Tim Ryan

This section of the route was very pleasant and easy to follow....

Tim Ryan