Kiln Knoll

The walk up Kiln Knoll isn't long, but it rewards you with proper views across the Cheshire Plain - the kind of vantage point that makes you understand why people bother with peaks at all, even modest ones. You're looking at moorland and farmland stretching out in waves, and on a clear day you can pick out shapes and distances that'd take you hours to drive to reach on foot.

It's genuinely worth the detour if you're camped at Eastwood End or anywhere round Macclesfield. The climb itself is gentle enough that families with decent-walking kids won't struggle, though little ones might need encouraging. Allow 45 minutes to an hour up and back, depending on whether you stop for the view halfway or wait until the top.

The ground can be boggy after rain - wore sodden socks myself last April - so come prepared if the weather's been dodgy. Summer's the obvious call, when the moorland's open and visibility isn't playing tricks. Winter's bleaker but less crowded, if solitude matters to you.

It's the sort of hill that locals know rather than tourists queue for. That's rather the point. The Cheshire peaks don't have the drama of the High Peak further south, but they're proper walking country, and Kiln Knoll sits well within a park-based holiday if you want to string together a few half-day rambles. Honest effort for an honest view.