Faggs Wood

About fifteen minutes outside Ashford, Faggs Wood is a proper working forest - the sort of place where you actually feel like you've stepped away from the southeast rather than just popped to a local beauty spot. It's a mixed woodland of oak, ash and conifers, and the paths wind through dense cover that feels genuinely wild even when you're only a stone's throw from civilisation.

Walkers will get the most from it. The trails aren't marked to death, which means you need a bit of map sense, but that's part of the appeal - there's no rope-herding you round a predetermined loop. You can spend an hour or three depending on mood, picking your way through the trees and occasionally stumbling onto clearings where the light suddenly opens up. It's easy to see why people based at Broadhembury or Wildside Camping nearby would make this a regular stop.

The forest works best in autumn when the canopy thins and you can actually see where you're going. Spring's decent too - bluebells do their thing if you time it right. Summer can feel a bit claustrophobic under all that green, and frankly winter makes the mud situation properly biblical.

Bring proper footwear. There's no visitor centre, no cafe, no facilities to speak of - it's genuinely untamed. That's the point, really. It's free to wander and costs nothing, which means you can justify the slightly awkward drive from town when the weather's right.