Thames Path: Caversham to Sonning

The Thames Path National Trail runs 184 miles from the source in Gloucestershire to the Thames Barrier, and the four-mile stretch from Caversham Bridge east to Sonning is easily the most walked section within Reading itself. It is flat, level, well-signed, and — despite starting on the edge of a big town — genuinely lovely: cricket pitches, moored narrowboats, willows, swans, the occasional heron, and one of the loveliest village endings in the Thames Valley at Sonning Bridge.

Start at Caversham Bridge (five minutes' walk from Reading Station via Christchurch Bridge) and head east on the north bank. You pass the Thames-side promenade with its bandstand, King's Meadow (the restored Edwardian ladies' swimming pool is now a private lido), then out past Kennet Mouth where the Kennet joins the Thames beside the Blade office tower. From there it is open river all the way — Sonning Lock is about the halfway point, and the last mile passes the Thames Valley Park meadows before reaching Sonning Bridge. Cross the bridge into the village for a pint at The Bull or lunch at The Great House.

Free, all year, all weather (bring waterproof boots November to February — sections get properly muddy). Two hours one way at a steady pace; you can bus back to Reading on the 128 from Sonning High Street (every 30 min, £3), or turn round and walk back. Alternative: shorter walk to Kennet Mouth (2 miles round trip) if pressed. This is the exact walk locals do on a Sunday and it is a proper reason to base yourself at a Caversham or Sonning stay for a few days.

Reading is the anchor for getting to the start: fast Great Western trains from London Paddington take about 25 minutes, the Elizabeth line about an hour for less money, and from the station's north exit it is seven or eight minutes on foot up Vastern Road to Caversham Bridge, or a slightly prettier line over Christchurch Bridge and along the promenade. Drivers should not aim for Sonning — the village has almost no public parking and the pub yards are for customers. Park at Hills Meadow on the Caversham bank beside Reading Bridge, or in one of the station decks, and walk down to the water. Coming back, Reading Buses' Leopard 128 picks up on Sonning High Street and contactless keeps a single around the £3 mark. Miss it and the fallback is a two-mile road walk through Charvil to Twyford station, where trains reach Reading in six or seven minutes.

Nothing on the path itself takes money: no gates, no honesty box, no season ticket, and the locks cost nothing to stand and watch for half an hour. Budget instead for the ending. A pint at the Bull runs around £6, pub mains roughly £16-£24, and a Sunday roast about £20; the Great House sits a notch above that and expects you to have knocked the mud off your boots first. Two singles on the 128 back into Reading come to about £6. Add a coffee at the start and a realistic day for two is £60-£80 with lunch, or under £10 if you carry a flask and sandwiches and treat the village as a photo stop. The two genuinely expensive options here are booked separately: swim-and-spa sessions at Thames Lido on King's Meadow, and dinner-and-show tickets at the Mill at Sonning. Neither is necessary; both cost more than the walk.

Mornings win. Between 09:00 and 11:00 the light comes down the river from the east, rowing eights from the Reading clubs are still out, and the meadows are empty; by 15:00 in summer the promenade end is families, dogs and ice cream. On Saturday at 09:00 the Thames Valley Park stretch belongs to Reading parkrun for 40 minutes — free, friendly, and 300 runners coming the other way. Sunday between 12:30 and 14:30 both Sonning pubs are full, so book. Month by month, April to June is the best of it, cow parsley shoulder-high and goslings on the bank; the third week of July brings the Swan Upping skiffs past Sonning; late August means Reading Festival at Richfield Avenue, west of Caversham Bridge, which makes the town, the trains and the hotels chaotic for a weekend. November to February is mud, floodwater and darkness by 16:00. Aim for a dry weekday in May, leaving Caversham Bridge by 10:00.

Flat and stile-free, so buggies, wheelchairs and slow legs manage the first mile easily — the tarmac promenade past Caversham Lock and Reading Bridge to Kennet Mouth is the smoothest surface on the whole route, and turning there gives a two-mile round trip in 45 minutes. Beyond Thames Valley Park the surface becomes compacted gravel and then grass, and wheels stop being fun. Small children get their money's worth in the first half hour: lock gates cycling, the carvings on View Island, narrowboats reversing badly. Teenagers will find the middle two miles are field, field, field, so give them the lock or leave them in town. With one hour before a train, walk Caversham Bridge to Kennet Mouth and back and you are never more than 15 minutes from the platform. On a properly wet afternoon, skip the walk and go to Reading Museum instead. Dogs on leads: swans nest along this bank from March.

Fold in Reading's free heritage before you set off rather than after, because the bus drops you back at teatime and things shut. Reading Abbey Ruins and Forbury Gardens, with Henry I buried somewhere beneath, are 12 minutes' walk from Reading Bridge, and Reading Museum in the Town Hall — free, closed Sundays and Mondays — holds the full-size Victorian copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, ten minutes from the same point. Ten minutes west of Caversham Bridge on the north bank, Caversham Court Gardens is a walled riverside garden with a seasonal tea hut and the best free view of the water in the borough. En route, Blake's Lock and the Fisherman's Cottage pub are a ten-minute detour up the Kennet from the horseshoe footbridge. At the far end, St Andrew's Church is two minutes from Sonning Bridge and the Mill at Sonning, a working watermill turned dinner theatre, sits just across the water in Sonning Eye.

The oversell is the phrase national trail. The first mile out of Reading is car parks, office glass, a rowing club and the Great Western main line close enough to hear every train, and it only turns into countryside past Thames Valley Park. The towpath is shared with commuting cyclists at either end of the day and they arrive quietly. Sonning itself is twenty minutes of village — church, bridge, lock, two pubs, no shop and no café counter — so a wet Sunday with no table booked leaves you standing in the rain waiting for the 128. People do turn up hoping to see George Clooney's house; you cannot, and the neighbours have heard the joke. Winter mud in the meadow sections is real, ankle-deep and boot-swallowing, and once or twice each winter the river simply covers the path. Walk it dry, or walk it in boots you do not mind ruining.

Hours & entry

Always free

Daily, dawn to dusk · Best light 09:00-11:00 and 17:00-19:00 · Muddy Nov-Feb

What to see

{'what': 'Kennet Mouth where the Kennet joins the Thames', 'where': '1 mile east of Caversham Bridge, north bank'}

{'what': "Sonning Lock and the lock-keeper's garden", 'where': 'Halfway point, 2 miles from Caversham Bridge'}

{'what': 'Sonning Bridge, 18th century in red brick', 'where': 'End of the walk, entering Sonning village'}

Tips from the ground

The Bull at Sonning is the pub you want; The Great House does the smart lunch. Both take walk-ins if you’re early.

Bus 128 back to Reading runs half-hourly from Sonning High Street until 19:00.

Wear waterproof boots November to March — the path floods below the Blade tower.