Stay in one of our characterful country houses and you’re just a skip away from the UK’s best-loved national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. And the walking opportunities are as spectacular as you’d expect.

Look out over otherworldly rock formations and Caribbean-like beaches on the wildlife-packed coastal paths of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset – or ramble through the remote regions of the North York Moors and the Peak District.

Then there’s the irresistible pull of walks around the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. Much adored by legendary fellwalker, illustrator, and guidebook author Alfred Wainwright, the Lake District boasts the 73-mile-long Cumbria Way, plus well-trodden routes to Scafell Pike – the highest point in England at 978 metres. Equally standout is the Dales Way which unfurls over 79 miles of limestone ridges, flat hilltops, and forested valleys.

Elsewhere, you can conquer Somerset’s Quantock Hills with an ascent up Will’s Neck or take on Shropshire’s favourite walking trilogy, The Three Stretton Hills – a trail that lets you tick off a trio of peaks in a single day.