Princess May Recreation Ground

Princess May Recreation Ground sits just outside Gulval, a quiet spot that feels proper removed from the usual tourist crush. It's a nature reserve rather than a manicured park - scrubby woodland, rough grassland, and the kind of undergrowth that actually supports wildlife instead of a pristine lawn. Depending on the season, you'll spot birds moving through the trees and insects doing their thing in the longer grass.

This is the sort of place walkers gravitate towards rather than families after a day out. The paths are decent enough, though not what you'd call maintained - which is rather the point. It's free to roam about, and you can spend anything from 45 minutes to two hours depending on how slowly you want to move and whether you've brought binoculars. Spring and early summer are the best times, when everything's actually alive.

If you're staying at Roselands Caravan Camping Park, just five miles away, this makes a decent morning or late afternoon walk without requiring a proper expedition. It's the kind of place to stretch your legs between other activities rather than the centrepiece of a day out, but that's not a criticism - sometimes you want to step away from the manicured stuff and just breathe in an actual woodland for a bit. Worth the drive if you're nearby and after something low-key.