Ditton Park Wood

A proper woodland walk just outside Newmarket, Ditton Park Wood offers the kind of quiet forest experience you don't always find in East Anglia. The trees here are tall enough to make you forget you're in Cambridgeshire, and there's a genuine sense of being away from things despite being minutes from town.

Walking through, you'll find yourself on decent paths that wind between mature woodland. It's not dramatic or sweeping - this is intimate stuff, the sort of place where you notice the quality of light through the leaves and hear actual birdsong. There are a few clearings scattered about if you fancy stopping for a breather. Most visits take between 45 minutes and two hours depending on how far you fancy going.

This works best for family groups wanting a proper stretch of the legs without having to trek miles, or anyone who's been at Newmarket racecourse and fancies some greenery afterwards. Walkers will appreciate the quiet, though there's nothing particularly challenging about it. Young children enjoy it more if you make a thing of looking for birds or insects rather than treating it as an endurance test.

If you're staying at Piggles Retreat just 2.7 miles away, this is an easy morning outing. It's the kind of wood you'd do alongside other activities rather than making a special journey, but that doesn't diminish it. Sometimes straightforward woodland is exactly what you need.