Peaked Corner

The name alone makes you want to investigate - Peaked Corner is a proper gem of woodland sitting a few miles north of Salisbury. It's not a manicured visitor attraction with a car park and a café, but rather a slice of genuine forest where the trees crowd in properly and the paths wind through mixed deciduous woodland that feels genuinely wild for rural Wiltshire.

Walkers get the most from this place. The forest floor is soft underfoot, and the paths meander through beech and oak in a way that makes you forget you're only minutes from Salisbury's medieval sprawl. In autumn the light through the canopy turns everything golden, and even on a grey day there's something absorbing about the density of it all. Kids won't last hours here unless they're the exploring type - it's not a play park, and there's nothing interactive - but for a 45-minute wander with the family, it works well.

If you're basing yourself at Chalke Valley Camping just down the road, this is a cracking spot for a morning walk. No admission charge as far as I can tell, no facilities to speak of. Bring proper footwear in wet months - the paths get boggy. The real value is in the walking itself rather than any destination within it, so come prepared for that. It's the sort of place you visit to clear your head rather than to tick off a sightseeing box.