Bartholomew's Hills Plantation

Thick woodland wraps around you the moment you step into Bartholomew's Hills Plantation - proper ancient forest, this. It's east of Swaffham, Norfolk, in the kind of landscape where you can actually hear yourself think, which is increasingly rare. The trees are dense enough that even on bright days there's a quiet green shade overhead, and the paths are manageable without being boring.

Walkers will find this genuinely worthwhile. The terrain doesn't demand fell boots or specialist kit - it's forest floor walking, sometimes muddy, always atmospheric. The plantation sits on higher ground than you'd expect in this part of Norfolk, so there are sight lines through the trees when the season's right, and the whole place has a cathedral-like quality that adults seem to appreciate more than restless kids might. An hour's exploration will see you through it properly, maybe ninety minutes if you're dawdling.

It's free, which helps, and pairs well with a base at Breckland Meadows Caravan Park just down the road - a couple of miles or so. That site's nothing fancy (3.0 out of 5 rating tells you what you need to know), but it gives you access to this corner of Breckland without the faffing about. Birders in particular should mark this down - the variety of woodland species here beats the open heathland options. Best visited outside peak summer when the bugs are manageable and the ground isn't baked hard.