Moley Hill

The walk up Moley Hill from Appleby-in-Westmorland is short enough that you won't hear complaints, but steep enough that you'll feel you've earned the view. It's a proper little fell rather than a mountain - the kind of place where you can be at the summit within an hour of leaving town, which means families with young legs or older walkers needn't worry about getting caught out.

The fell itself is moorland and grassland, nothing fancy, but from the top you get something the guidebooks don't really do justice to: a proper perspective on the Eden Valley spreading out below. On a clear day the Pennines form a decent backdrop, and you can see why the Romans thought this corner of Westmorland was worth fortifying.

Bring good boots rather than trainers - the ground gets boggy in patches - and go on a day when the weather's cooperating, because there's no shelter up there and the cloud can roll in without warning. An hour and a bit up, forty minutes down if you don't dawdle. Free, naturally, like most Cumbrian fells.

If you're based at Wild Rose Holiday Park down in the valley, this makes a cracking morning outing before heading into Appleby for lunch. It's not a destination in itself, but as part of a wider fell-walking weekend in the area, it's well worth the detour. Low effort, genuine reward.