Hills and Holes

The landscape around Mansfield tells a story written in earth and stone, and Hills and Holes is where you can read it properly. This isn't a manicured attraction with visitor centres and gift shops - it's a working forest with a peculiar geological past, all ridges and hollows that look like something's been at the ground with a fork. The lumps and bumps are genuine medieval quarrying scars, where locals dug out sandstone for building. Walk through and you're literally treading on centuries of extraction.

It's the kind of place that appeals to walkers who like their history written into the landscape, and families after a proper forest ramble rather than a theme park experience. Children tend to love clambering over the uneven terrain, though it's not ideal if pushchairs are involved. The forest itself is pleasant enough - nothing as grand as nearby Clumber Park, but more interesting than a straight walk through uniform trees.

Since it's part of Sherwood Forest country, it works well as a half-day outing if you're based at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest or The Sherwood Hideaway. Allow a couple of hours to wander and actually absorb what you're looking at. It's free to visit, though you'll need decent boots and shouldn't attempt it after heavy rain when the hollows become boggy. Go on a weekday morning if possible - it gets busy at weekends with locals who know the place inside out.