Our Favourite Walks From Deepdene
One of the reasons we like this side of Bath so much is that you have a slightly unusual choice when you leave the house.
Turn one way and you are almost immediately in countryside. Turn the other and you can walk downhill through some of Bath's loveliest streets all the way into the centre.
These aren't routes we've assembled from a tourist map. They're the walks we'd actually suggest to friends staying at Deepdene.
1. Charlcombe Lane and St Mary's — our favourite local circular
This is probably the walk we'd do most often ourselves.
Leave Deepdene and head into Charlcombe Lane. It doesn't take long before Bath seems to disappear behind you and the road begins to feel properly rural.
Charlcombe is a tiny, scattered place rather than a conventional village, with old stone houses, narrow lanes, fields and the valley dropping away around you.
The highlight is St Mary's Church, Charlcombe.
It's a wonderfully small church tucked into the valley and is actually the oldest church building in Bath, with a history stretching back more than a thousand years. Jane Austen even wrote about Charlcombe as a popular destination for walkers from Bath.
If the church is open, we'd go in. Its garden is equally lovely and includes an old holy well fed by a natural spring.
It feels oddly remote considering how close you still are to the city.
From there, continue around the lanes and footpaths through Charlcombe before looping back towards Deepdene.
We wouldn't make this article into turn-by-turn walking instructions — paths and conditions change — but it is a very easy route to build on a walking app once you're here.
Why we like it: it feels like a genuine Somerset country walk without having to get into the car.
Best for: dogs, a quiet morning, muddy boots and anyone who wants to see the completely non-Georgian side of Bath.
And yes, after rain it can be properly muddy.
2. Deepdene to Pulteney Bridge — the walk we'd recommend to almost every guest
If it's your first visit to Bath, we'd actually walk into town rather than take a taxi at least once.
The route is half the point.
From Deepdene, make your way down towards Richmond Road, passing the Lansdown Club and then St Stephen's Church, which sits rather dramatically at the fork of Richmond Road and Lansdown Road. The church itself suggests the more scenic route into town via this part of Lansdown rather than simply marching straight down the main road.
Then comes the really good bit.
Through Lansdown
Work your way through Lansdown Crescent and the surrounding Georgian streets.
This is Bath architecture without the same volume of visitors you get around the Royal Crescent. It's much more residential and, to us, feels like you're discovering Bath rather than joining the sightseeing circuit.
Then continue downhill towards the Bath Approach Golf Course.
The course sits immediately above Royal Victoria Park, so you suddenly get the city opening out below you.
Down through Victoria Park
Drop through the green space into Royal Victoria Park.
From here you get the Royal Crescent sitting above the park — probably one of the best approaches to it, because you see the whole sweep of the building rather than simply arriving in front of it.
The park itself dates from 1830 and the Royal Crescent dominates its eastern side.
Walk across to the Royal Crescent, then continue through Brock Street, towards the Circus and down into central Bath.
You can easily detour through the quieter streets around Margaret's Buildings if you want coffee or a look around the independent shops.
Then keep going
Don't stop at the shopping streets.
Carry on through the centre, past Bath Abbey, and down towards the river.
Finish at Pulteney Bridge and the weir.
It's one of those Bath views that is heavily photographed for good reason, and reaching it on foot from Deepdene makes the whole city suddenly make geographic sense.
At that point we'd probably do one of three things:
have lunch,
wander around town, or
get a taxi back uphill.
There is absolutely no requirement to prove anything by walking all the way back.
Why we like it: countryside-edge Bath → quiet Georgian Bath → Royal Crescent → city → river, all in one walk.
Best for: first-time visitors.
3. Holburne Museum, Sydney Gardens and the canal — the one we'd add when you're already in town
This is the walk we'd do when we've already come into central Bath and want another hour or two outside without climbing back up a hill.
Start around Pulteney Bridge and walk along Great Pulteney Street.
Great Pulteney Street is ridiculously grand for what is essentially a route to a park. Walk all the way to the end and you reach the Holburne Museum.
Even if you don't go into the museum, the setting is worth the walk.
Then go around into Sydney Gardens behind it.
This is where Bath becomes slightly stranger and more interesting. The gardens were designed as Georgian pleasure grounds, but both the railway and the Kennet & Avon Canal now cut directly through them. Historic England notes that the canal runs through the eastern half of the gardens, crossed by an iron bridge dating from 1800.
Drop down onto the canal path and walk for as long as you feel like.
This isn't the generic “walk the Kennet & Avon Canal” recommendation we'd give anyone staying anywhere in Bath. What makes it good for our guests is that it fits naturally into a day:
Deepdene → walk into Bath → Pulteney Bridge → Holburne → Sydney Gardens → canal.
You can then turn back towards Great Pulteney Street and the centre when you've had enough.
It's flat, peaceful and surprisingly different from the Georgian streets just above you.
Best for: an afternoon after lunch, mixed generations, or when everyone has already done enough hills.
If we had to choose
For countryside: Charlcombe and St Mary's.
For a first visit to Bath: walk from Deepdene through Lansdown, Victoria Park and the Royal Crescent to Pulteney Bridge.
For an easy extra hour in town: Holburne Museum, Sydney Gardens and the canal.
And that's really the attraction of Deepdene's location.
We don't think of it as simply being “15 minutes from Bath”.
The better description is that you can walk out of the front door into countryside, or walk downhill through some of Bath's best Georgian streets into the middle of the city.