Town Brook Trail

The Town Brook Trail is a 1.5-mile walking path through the heart of historic Plymouth, running from Billington Street down to the waterfront, linking together Town Brook Patuxet Preserve, Billington Street Park, Holmes Park, Town Brook Park, the Plimoth Grist Mill, Brewster Gardens, and Pilgrim Memorial State Park along the way. The surface alternates between pavement, gravel, and dirt, with several bridges crossing the brook and plenty of spots to pause and take in the view -- it's stroller-friendly from Newfield Street to Water Street. The trail follows the route of the historic Namassakeeset Trail, a pathway the Patuxet Wampanoag established along the brook long before European settlement. Along the way, informational kiosks mark the sites of the First through Fourth Water Privileges, where mills and factories once processed everything from leather and iron to thread and nails. Five dams have since been removed here, the last completed in 2018-2019, and herring counts have rebounded dramatically as a result -- from roughly 7,000 in 2003 to nearly 200,000 by 2016.