Historic market towns are the quiet secret of British walking. You get a proper town at the start and finish, a route that rarely climbs more than a few dozen metres, and the promise of a pub within minutes of taking your boots off. These are the walks to keep in your back pocket for a bright Saturday in March, a slow Sunday in October, or the day after a rather large lunch.

What follows is how these routes tend to be put together, and what to look for when you plan one for yourself.

Why market towns suit an easy day out

Towns that grew up around a market square, a river crossing, an abbey or a castle almost always have a web of old paths radiating outwards. Long before anyone drove to the shops, people walked in from the surrounding villages to trade, and those routes survive as public footpaths, bridleways and quiet lanes.

That history is a gift to the modern walker. The paths were laid out for people carrying baskets, not rucksacks, so the gradients are gentle and the distances between settlements are short. You are rarely more than a mile from a road, a bench or a cup of tea, which makes these routes ideal for anyone who wants a proper walk without committing to a full day on the fells.

What "easy" really means on the ground

A good easy circular in this mould is usually three to six miles, taking two to three hours at a stroll with time to look at things. Expect a mixture of surfaces rather than a single one, and expect at least one section to be muddy between November and April.

• Riverside paths — flat, obvious and often the loveliest part of the route. Look out for old mill races, weirs and the occasional heron.
• Old lanes and green ways — sunken, hedge-lined and usually traffic-free. These are the leftover drovers' and church paths.
• Field edges — the bread and butter of English walking. Follow the waymark posts, keep to the headland, and close every gate behind you.
• Stiles and kissing gates — a handful is normal, a dozen is a sign you have picked something more rugged than you wanted.

Waymarking varies. Some counties are excellent, with crisp yellow and white arrows at every junction; others leave you to squint at a fingerpost that has weathered to grey. Carry a paper map even if you have a phone. An Ordnance Survey Explorer sheet at 1:25,000 shows field boundaries clearly enough to get you out of trouble.

The classic shape: river, lane, field edge

Most of these walks follow the same pleasing pattern. You leave the town centre, drop to the river and follow it downstream for a mile or so, with the backs of old houses and the parish church on the far bank. Then the path swings away from the water, climbs a short rise through a copse, and joins a lane that takes you to the edge of the town.

The final stretch is usually across two or three fields, and you re-enter through a gap between buildings that you would never spot from the road. That slight disorientation, arriving back somewhere familiar by an unfamiliar route, is half the pleasure.

Routes worth planning your weekend around

Rather than a single itinerary, it is more useful to know what to look for in a town. The best candidates share a few features.

• A river or canal — riverside walking is the flattest, most reliable option in wet weather. Canal towpaths are almost always firm underfoot.
• A castle, abbey or motte — these usually mean a park, a wooded slope and a short, rewarding climb with a view back over the rooftops.
• A surviving market square — a good sign that the town is still a place people use, rather than a place people visit.
• Footpaths marked on the town's own leaflet — many towns publish a free set of short circulars. Pick one up from the library or the tourist information point.

Towns such as Bakewell, Ludlow, Skipton, Hexham, Thame and Arundel all fit this description, with rivers, old lanes and wooded edges within a ten-minute walk of the marketplace. Any of them will give you a satisfying half-day out.

Ending well: lunch and the town itself

The finish is part of the walk, not an afterthought. Aim to be back in town somewhere between half past twelve and two, when the pubs are still serving and the kitchen has not yet run out of pie. A riverside beer garden in July or a flagstoned bar with a fire in February will both improve the day enormously.

If you have children with you, or simply want to stretch the afternoon, leave an hour afterwards for the independent shops. Market towns tend to have a good bookshop, a proper ironmonger, a deli that sells local cheese, and a bakery that closes when it sells out. That is the sort of browsing you cannot do in a retail park, and it is the reason these towns are worth a journey in the first place.

Practical notes before you set off

• Wear boots you trust. Even a dry week leaves one shaded corner of a field sticky.
• Take a small rucksack with water, a waterproof and a spare layer. British weather does not respect a three-mile plan.
• Check for river closures. Footpaths beside water flood, and stiles on floodplains suffer. Local authority rights-of-way pages usually list temporary closures.
• Start early or late on weekends. Car parks in popular market towns fill by ten on a sunny Saturday.
• Leave gates as you find them, and give livestock a wide berth, especially where dogs are concerned.

Do that, and an easy circular around a market town becomes one of the most reliable pleasures in British walking: a few hours of river and field, a bit of history underfoot, and a decent lunch at the end of it.