Just 20 miles from Manchester city centre, the precipitous Tegg’s Nose Country Park represents an abrupt end to the Cheshire Plain, with flat fields replaced by a whole new, wild landscape of steep, craggy hills, open moors and dense, impenetrable forest.

As befits such a wild area, this route is steep in places, crossing a rich mix of habitats offering the chance to spot an equally diverse range of wildlife. Over the meadows, look for buzzards circling overhead, scanning the fields for carrion, and listen for the unmistakable cronking of garrulous ravens, as well as the piping trill of skylarks as they soar upwards.

Between May and August, the meadows are covered with a carpet of yellow mountain pansies, interspersed with common spotted orchids and yellowy green clusters of flowers atop lady’s mantle.

In the woods, you can spot crossbills flitting among the pine trees, along with pied flycatchers and redstarts, and you may even see one of the small herds of red deer that still roam among the trees. 

Deacon Hill, Pegsdon and Barton Hills, Bedfordshire

Distance: 7.1 miles | Duration: 4 hours

Pegsdon Hills and Hoo Bit Nature Reserve sit above the village of Hexton in the Chiltern Hills AONB. The wildflower meadows that grow on these chalk hillsides are popular with brown argus, green hairstreak, dingy and grizzled butterflies. Wait until after dusk and you may even see glow worms. To the west are the steep, well-grazed slopes of Barton Hills National Nature Reserve.

In spring and summer, visitors can explore the downland and beech woodland, where dark green fritillary, marbled white and chalkhill blue butterflies dance among grazing Dartmoor ponies. The reserve is also Bedfordshire’s main site for the rare pasqueflower, which blooms between April and early June.

Deacon Hill, Pegsdon and Barton Hills walking route and map

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Best spring walks in Scotland

Rockcliffe to Kippford, Dumfries and Galloway

Distance: 4 miles | Duration: 2 hours

Firth, between Kippford and Castle Point, where Urr Water meets the Solway Firth, is blessed with a variety of habitats. Ancient broadleaf woodlands burst with wood anemones and bluebells; well-tended meadows erupt with daisies, dandelions and insect-friendly grasses; and vibrant yellow gorse flowers line the coastal headland like floral beacons.

There are numerous viewpoints from which to survey this colourful landscape: The Muckle’s gorse-topped summit, 100m above sea level, is ideal for little legs; the small peak of Mote of Mark is the perfect prelude to a picnic in the flower meadow below; and then there’s Rough Island (accessed only at low tide and closed in May and June to protect ground-nesting ringed plovers and oystercatchers)

Rockcliffe to Kippford walking route and map 

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Coille Mhor, Balmacara, Highland

Distance: 5 miles | 3 hours

Coille Mhòr – the great wood – is a haven for beautiful flowers. Bluebells grow beneath the tree canopies, alongside the distinctive bluish-purple petals of common dog violet. Robert Herrick paid homage to the latter in his poem To Violets: “Welcome, maids of honour, You doe bring in the spring; And wait upon her.”

The zing of spring is powerful here. Pure air provides ideal conditions for an impressive range of lichens that grow en masse upon the old oaks of Coille Mhòr’s lower slopes. Higher up, birch, rowan, alder and ash thrive, and the forest is also home to mammals including badgers, pine martens and visiting otters.

A beautiful five-mile woodland walk on the north-west coast of Scotland comes alive with wildflowers, lichen, and trees in spring.

Coille Mhor walking route and map

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Handa Island, Sutherland

Distance: 4 miles | Duration: 3 hours

It’s spring, and the teetering cliff tops of Handa Island in Scotland’s remote north-west are a sanctuary for seabirds. Guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars and Arctic terns nest alongside the puffins and, by summer, the island reverberates with the sound of 100,000 breeding seabirds, one of north-west Europe’s largest colonies.

In the warmer months, a small passenger ferry (07780967800) runs daily from Tarbet on the mainland across the Sound of Handa to the ivory-white beaches of Port an Eilean and Traigh an Teampaill on the island’s eastern shores.

Not far from the landing site, the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s visitor centre – a modest stone building, crammed with animal bones, old ID books and binoculars for hire – is the perfect starting point for a circular walk around the island.

Handa Island walking route and map

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Best spring walks in Wales

Cefn Bryn, Gower

Distance: 8 miles | Duration: 5 hours

From Gower’s coasts, Cefn Bryn is a gently swelling sandstone ridge that invites your eyes and eventually your legs along its length.

Scattered over it are prehistoric hut circles, burnt mounds and cairns, most notably the magnificent Maen Ceti (King Arthur’s Stone), a Neolithic cromlech that, built to shelter human bones, now harbours lichens and rain.

In spring, three-lobed water crowfoot flowers in summit ponds that eventually dry out in summer when the hill is a tapestry of Western gorse, heathers, cotton-grass, heath-rush and molinia.

Meanwhile, in deeper Broad Pool at the hill’s limestone foot, fringed waterlily, lesser marshwort and water-milfoil thrive. Herons, snipe, little grebes, water stick insects, water scorpions, 14 species of dragonflies and damselflies can also be found, as well as the occasional billowing bride (the pool is a popular wedding photo venue).

Cefn Bryn walking route and map

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Cwm Idwal, Gwynedd

Distance: 2.5 miles | Duration: 1.5 hours

The jagged peaks that soar over Cwm Idwal dwarf the Arctic-alpine plants that grow on the slopes around its waters. To appreciate them fully, you have to crouch down or dangle over them to see their colourful petals  hunkered on ledges or in crevices  – it’s here that they thrive, feeding on minerals that leach through the rock.

These miniature Ice Age relics have outlived the mammoths, surviving in an environment that is neither far enough north to be considered Arctic nor high enough to be alpine. Accustomed elsewhere to cold snowy winters, here the climate is unpredictable and predominantly wet, with ill-defined seasons.

The months of March, April and May, like the rest, are often wind-whipped, veiled in cloud and doused in rain. It is the flowering of these special Arctic-alpines that distinguish spring from the rest of the year.

Cwm Idwal walking route and map

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Clwydian Range, Denbighshire/Flintshire

Distance: 17.5 miles | Duration: 9 hours

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The 11 Clwydians – a run of modest hills that you sink between and then promptly crest, with the breeze raking your hair and the sky scrubbing the heather – stretch south from Prestatyn for 20 miles between the Dee Estuary and Vale of Clwyd.

Navigating the hills and surrounding valleys, the Clwydian Way, a 122-mile circular route, takes in the towns of Prestatyn, Llangollen and Corwen, and explores Loggerheads Country Park, which has mixed ash woodland and limestone grassland, Llyn Brenig (a reservoir), and Coed Clocaenog, where red squirrels thrive.

The hills are a rippling riot of colour in both spring and summer, granting breathtaking views. Connecting the Irish Sea with mid-Wales, this 17.5-mile route follows the length of the ridgeline. It can be walked in one long day or two moderate days.

Clwydian Range walking route and map

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Llanthony and Hatterall Ridge, Monmouthshire

Distance: 4.6 miles | Duration: 3 hours

Running along the spine of England and Wales for 177 miles, this ancient path follows the eighth-century fortification built on the order of King Offa in an attempt to divide Mercia from rival kingdoms.

This energetic circular walk – ideal for a spring day out – meanders in and out of the Brecon Beacons National Park, negotiating the scenic Hatterall Ridge that separates England from Wales. Lying in the Vale of Ewyas, the evocative ruins of Llanthony Priory, a 12th-century Augustinian abbey, can also be enjoyed. However, to appreciate its full splendour, grit your teeth and prepare for a heart-pumping climb…

Llanthony and Hatterall Ridge walking route and map

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Cwm Nash and Traeth Mawr, Glamorgan

Distance: 4.5 miles | Duration: 3 hours

The cliffs at Traeth Mawr reach into the spring sky like the stepped, ivory walls of a Mayan temple. Peregrines nest upon the ledges of the tottering limestone bluffs, and choughs, the rarest members of the crow family, chee-ow and soar. 

Greater knapweed, wild cabbage and knotted hedge-parsley gather in clumps on the grassy crests, while down in the valley, where the land meets the sea, common rockrose sings yellow alongside the occasional clustered bellflower or horseshoe vetch.

Cwm Nash and Traeth Mawr walking route and map

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Caldey Island, Pembrokeshire

Distance: 3.5 miles | Duration: 1.5 hours

Caldey Island lies a few miles off the magnificent Pembrokeshire coast of west Wales. It is one of Britain’s Holy Islands and, today, the Cistercian order continues to observe traditions begun in the 6th century by Celtic monks.

The imposing 20th-century Arts and Craft-style white monastery, with its red-tiled roofs, perches above a village green and duck pond, surrounded by deciduous woods. Explore the trees, glades, fields and cliff tops of this peaceful island – past historic buildings and a small chocolate factory – on winding, flower-banked paths. A ferry runs daily (except Sundays and weather permitting) from Tenby harbour, Easter to October. Look out for seals as you cross the sea to Priory Bay.

Caldey Island walking route and map

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