Bath is a running town by accident of geology. The city sits in a bowl of the Avon with
hills on every side, so almost nothing here is out-and-back: you climb out, you come
round, you drop back in. The river and the Kennet and Avon towpath give you the level
ground, the Two Tunnels Greenway gives you a railway grade through the hill, and the
National Trust's Skyline circuit gives you the whole city from above.
What it does not give you is a flat run. Measured against terrain data across the
nine routes below, the gentlest carries eight metres of climb per kilometre and the
steepest thirty — and the thirty is the canal towpath, which is dead level itself
and climbs on every metre that gets you back to it. Bath rewards a runner who has
decided in advance how much hill they want.
19 named features9 examples belowAvon valley, Somerset
Nine routes in Bath, nine different requests
Nine, drawn on demand
After dark
Asked for“an easy 5K by the water”
Pulteney Bridge and the Avon
Pulteney Bridge and the Avon is a 5.0 km loop through the middle of Bath, and the flattest of the nine at 42 m of climb. Down the river past the weir, round through Sydney Gardens and back over the bridge.
Distance5.0 km
Ascent42 m
Steepest3.4%
On path1%
Confirmed lit70%
River AvonPulteney BridgeSydney Gardens
Why this one
50% of the climbing sits in the middle third — you start flat and you finish flat. Only 1% of it leaves tarmac, less than any of the other eight — it is the one to run when you do not want to pick your feet up.
The Two Tunnels Greenway is a 10.4 km loop out of Bath along the reopened Somerset and Dorset railway, and the most off-road of the nine at 29% off tarmac. The greenway itself carries no road crossing at all; the climb back into the city does.
Distance10.4 km
Ascent253 m
Steepest10.8%
On path29%
Confirmed lit23%
TrailTwo TunnelsTraffic-free
Why this one
The climbing is spread evenly — no third of the route carries more than 42% of it. 29% of it is off tarmac, more than any of the other eight.
The Bath Skyline is an 8.4 km loop on the National Trust's waymarked circuit above Bath, with 219 m of climb and 23% of it off tarmac. Beech woods, hillside meadows, and the Georgian city underneath you for most of the way round.
Distance8.4 km
Ascent219 m
Steepest12.9%
On path23%
Confirmed lit46%
TrailBath SkylineBathampton DownHilly
Why this one
The climbing is front-loaded: 48% of it inside the first third, so the run flattens out as it goes. 2% of it doubles back on ground already covered, and it stays within 1.1 km of the start.
Asked for“something short, right through the middle of town”
The Abbey and the Georgian city
The Abbey and the Georgian city is a 6.5 km loop from Bath Abbey through the middle of Bath, past the Circus and the Royal Crescent and back down to the river. Short and central, and still 104 m of climb, because nothing in this city is level for long.
Distance6.5 km
Ascent104 m
Steepest8.7%
On path14%
Confirmed lit58%
Bath AbbeyRoyal CrescentThe Circus
Why this one
51% of the climbing sits in the middle third — you start flat and you finish flat. No part of it is run twice — the loop never comes back on itself.
Bath Spa station and the canal is a 9.8 km loop from the platforms in Bath, out along the Kennet and Avon towpath and back through the city. It passes within 5 m of a public toilet, which is what was asked for.
Distance9.8 km
Ascent178 m
Steepest8.8%
On path27%
Confirmed lit51%
Bath SpaKennet and Avon CanalToilets
Why this one
The climbing is front-loaded: 54% of it inside the first third, so the run flattens out as it goes. 3% of it doubles back on ground already covered, and it stays within 1.1 km of the start.
The Kennet and Avon towpath to Bathampton is a 13.0 km loop out of Bath along the canal, and the hilliest of the nine at 397 m of climb. The towpath is dead level; everything that brings you back to it is not.
Distance13.0 km
Ascent397 m
Steepest13.9%
On path23%
Confirmed lit41%
Kennet and Avon CanalBathamptonHilly
Why this one
The climbing is front-loaded: 47% of it inside the first third, so the run flattens out as it goes. 5% of it doubles back on ground already covered, and it stays within 1.6 km of the start.
Royal Victoria Park and Lansdown is a 7.8 km loop from the park below the Royal Crescent in Bath, out onto the Lansdown slope and back down. Quiet ground for the whole of it, and a fair share of it is on ways recorded as unlit — a daylight run rather than an evening one.
Distance7.8 km
Ascent130 m
Steepest9.7%
On path13%
Confirmed lit40%
Royal Victoria ParkLansdownDaylight only
Why this one
47% of the climbing is in the last third. It finishes uphill, which is worth knowing before you set off. 6% of it doubles back on ground already covered, and it stays within 1.1 km of the start.
Alexandra Park and Beechen Cliff is an 11.5 km loop from the ridge above Bath, with 282 m of climb and 14.9% at its sharpest pitch. It starts at the viewpoint every postcard of the city is taken from and works east along the southern hills.
Distance11.5 km
Ascent282 m
Steepest14.9%
On path28%
Confirmed lit44%
Alexandra ParkBeechen CliffHilly
Why this one
67% of the climbing is in the last third. It finishes uphill, which is worth knowing before you set off. 6% of it doubles back on ground already covered, and it stays within 1.4 km of the start.
Asked for“half marathon without repeating a kilometre”
Bath half marathon loop
The Bath half marathon loop is a 21.2 km run from Royal Victoria Park, and the only one of the nine that gets you race distance without repeating a kilometre. River, canal and the hills on both sides, with 447 m of climb — not the flat two-lap city race that shares the name.
Distance21.2 km
Ascent447 m
Steepest19.6%
On path24%
Confirmed lit17%
Half marathonRiver AvonHilly
Why this one
The climbing is front-loaded: 46% of it inside the first third, so the run flattens out as it goes. It goes further out than any of the others, 3.1 km from the start at the far point.
Each of those nine started as one sentence. Tell RunFlex the distance, the surface and when you need to be back, and it draws one from your front door — not from the middle of Bath, and not from a list of runs other people have already done. If it isn’t right, say what is wrong and it draws another.
You describe it, it draws itA sentence in, a route on real streets out. Say “make it flatter” and it redrafts from what you already have.
It shows its workingEvery route above opens on the measurements it was judged against — where the climb sits, how much of it you run twice, what it never gets further than.
Then it goes to your wristOne tap sends it to the watch, which navigates turn by turn on its own GPS.
Running here after dark
Bath is dark by 16:41 in December, so from late October most weekday runs here
happen at night. Every other route site tells you a run “feels safe”.
RunFlex reads the lighting recorded on the streets
themselves — the ways surveyed as lit, and the ways surveyed as unlit —
and matches them to the roads you would actually be running. Where nothing has been
recorded it says so, rather than counting silence as lit.
Coverage in Bath is a valley-floor story. The river loop through the middle of the city runs 70% on ways recorded as lit and 4% on ways recorded as unlit; the Lansdown loop, a mile uphill from it, is 28% recorded unlit, and the Two Tunnels greenway falls to 23% recorded lit. Where the lighting cannot be confirmed, the app says so instead of guessing.
What you get here that you don't get from a route list
Side by side
Other route sites
RunFlex
What you get
Routes other people ran, in a fixed order
A route drafted for the run you asked for, tonight
Where it starts
Wherever that person started
Your front door
Why this route
No reason given
The scoring is on screen while it drafts
If it is wrong
Scroll to the next one
Say what is wrong and it redrafts
On the run
Your phone, in your hand
Turn by turn on your watch, phone left at home
Who has run it
Thousands of people, and the mud and the closed gate are in the comments
Nobody. It is drawn fresh, so you are the one finding out
That last row is the real trade. A library of routes has been tested by other runners
and a drafted route has not. RunFlex bets that being able to say what you want tonight
is worth more than that.
Leave the phone at home
Send any route above to an Apple Watch and it navigates on its own GPS, turn by
turn, with a tap before each one. The run syncs back when you are home. None of
the other sites on this search can do that, because none of them are an app you
run with.
The other thing that shapes a run here is how much light there is. The sun sets at
16:01 in mid-December and 21:27 in
mid-June, so the same after-work hour is a summer evening or a
night run depending on the month.
Computed for Bath at 51.3810°N 2.3590°W, on the 15th of each month in 2026.
Times are local — British Summer Time where it applies — and the clocks
go back on 25 October 2026, after which sunset on the Monday is
16:53. First and last light are civil twilight.
The numbers behind the chart
Month
First light
Sunrise
Sunset
Last light
Daylight
January
07:29
08:07
16:30
17:08
8h 22m
February
06:48
07:23
17:24
17:59
10h 02m
March
05:50
06:23
18:13
18:47
11h 50m
April
05:38
06:14
20:05
20:41
13h 52m
May
04:37
05:18
20:54
21:35
15h 36m
June
04:05
04:52
21:27
22:15
16h 35m
July
04:25
05:10
21:19
22:03
16h 09m
August
05:17
05:55
20:31
21:08
14h 36m
September
06:10
06:44
19:24
19:57
12h 40m
October
06:59
07:33
18:16
18:49
10h 43m
November
06:50
07:26
16:20
16:57
8h 54m
December
07:27
08:07
16:01
16:41
7h 53m
Try it on your own run. Say the distance and the surface, and RunFlex drafts it from your front door — not from the town centre, and not from a list.
The Kennet and Avon Canal towpath is the obvious start: flat, traffic-free and running east out of the city beside the water. The Bath Skyline is the opposite — six miles of NT-managed hillside above the city, on trail, with 200 metres of climb. Royal Victoria Park is the flat central green, and the Two Tunnels Greenway runs south through two Victorian railway tunnels, one of them the longest cycling tunnel in Britain. All nine routes above start in Bath, and RunFlex will redraw any of them from your own front door.
Where can I run 5K in Bath?
The canal towpath east of the city is the obvious flat 5K in Bath: traffic-free, beside the water, and a mile and a half each way needing no navigation. Royal Victoria Park is the central alternative, though 5K there means more than one lap.
Is there a traffic-free running route in Bath?
The Two Tunnels Greenway. It runs south from Oldfield Park through Devonshire and Combe Down tunnels on a sealed traffic-free path, and joins the Colliers Way for considerably more. The Kennet and Avon towpath does the same running east, and the Bristol and Bath Railway Path starts from the same end of the city.
Where can I run in Bath without a car?
Every route on this page starts inside Bath, so none of them needs a car. Bath Spa station is a few minutes from the canal towpath at Widcombe and from the river path through the middle of the city.
Where is Bath parkrun, and what should I run the rest of the week?
Bath Skyline parkrun is at 9am on Saturday in the NT parkland above the city, and it is a hilly one. Midweek, Team Bath AC train at the university track on Claverton Down, which is the same hill.
What is the flattest run in Bath?
The flattest run in Bath of the nine on this page is Pulteney Bridge and the Avon, at 42 m of climb over 5.0 km and never steeper than 3.4%. The Abbey and the Georgian city is next, at 104 m over 6.5 km. Both figures are measured off the drawn line rather than estimated from the map.
How hilly is Bath?
Bath is rolling rather than hilly. Measured across the nine routes on this page, the flattest carries 8.4 metres of climb per kilometre and the hilliest 30.5, and the steepest single pitch on any of them is 19.6%. The climbing sits in the valley sides rather than in any one hill.
When does it get dark in Bath?
In Bath the sun sets at 16:01 in mid-December and 21:27 in mid-June. The clocks go back on 25 October 2026, and sunset on the Monday after is 16:53, so from late October most weekday running here happens after dark. The month-by-month figures are in the table above.
Nine of an unlimited number. Yours is not drawn yet.
Say the distance and the surface. RunFlex drafts it from your door and sends the one you pick to your watch. Ask again tomorrow and you get a different one. Free early access while it is being built — no card, and no price to pay yet.
RunFlex is built by Rob Gotlieb, who runs. The nine routes above were
drafted by RunFlex from the Bath street and path network, measured by the same
services the app uses, and read by a person before this page went up. Nobody has run
them end to end — that is the trade in the table above.
If something here is wrong, and on a page of nine drafted routes something
eventually will be, tell us and it is fixed on the next build rather than sitting in a
comment thread.