(S/E) Start outside Reading Minster Church on St Mary's Butts. With your back to the church, turn left and walk a few yards to the crossroads. Turn right on to Castle Street and walk uphill, past the police station, to a large roundabout. Using the crossings to go straight ahead and continue up Castle Hill. Turn right at the junction with Russell Street. Then, continue West along Tilehurst Road for about a mile.
(1) At the roundabout, with the English Martyrs Catholic Church on your left, cross over Liebenrood Road and enter Prospect Park. Head uphill across the grass and keep the car park on your right. Walk to the brow of the hill and keep straight on downhill through the park until you leave the park on Bath Road.
(2) Cross the road and take the little path straight ahead to join Circuit Lane. Follow this road to its end where you will see a metal gate across a track.
(3) Go through the gate and keep on this track, crossing the Holy Brook and going under the railway line, until you meet the River Kennet at Milkmaids Bridge.
(4) Cross the white railing footbridge and turn immediately left on the footpath. Follow this path, quickly turning a sharp right to cross the river, then a sharp left, until you cross a weir over the Kennet. Keep straight ahead with the canal on your left and the nature reserve on your right for about half a mile.
(5) Cross the bridge and then, right after the lock, turn left over a bridge across the river and immediately right between the buildings.
(6) Follow this path back towards Reading town centre always keeping the river close on your right hand side. As you approach the town centre, you will see the Oracle Shopping Centre ahead of you. Just before you reach this, turn left on Bridge Street to reach the start point of the walk on St Mary's Butts (S/E)
