Beacon Hill

The walk up Beacon Hill takes about twenty minutes from the car park, and it's steep enough to get your heart rate up without being a full slog. You're rewarded at the top with views across Derbyshire that stretch for miles on a clear day - the kind of vista that makes you understand why someone bothered to light a beacon up here centuries ago.

It's primarily a walkers' destination, though fit families with older kids will manage it fine. The terrain is straightforward path work, nothing technical, but the gradient means toddlers will need carrying on the way down. The site itself is free to visit and there's a decent car park at the base, which fills up on sunny weekends - arrive early or go midweek if you want peace.

Historically, this was one of a chain of beacon fires used to signal across the country, and you can still make out the earthworks from the Iron Age fort that once occupied the summit. It's not dramatic archaeology - more a sense of standing where people stood for centuries - but it adds weight to the climb.

If you're based at one of the nearby parks like Riddings Wood or Golden Valley, both less than six miles away, Beacon Hill works as a half-morning walk before heading back for lunch. The Nottingham area has plenty of other green spaces, so you could easily string together a few walks across a week. Allow an hour and a half door-to-door if you want a leisurely pace.