Holybourne is an attractive village on the outskirts of Alton. There is a great play area, family-friendly pub, duckpond and a network of paths in the surrounding fields.

Near Bentworth, between Alton and Basingstoke, Home Farm is a landscape of meadows and woodland with butterflies and red kites soaring overhead. Surprisingly, much of this wildlife haven was actually created by carefully managed regeneration of cultivated land over the last 30 years.

Follow in the footsteps of Jane Austen and take a stroll through Chawton Park Wood to find bluebells and if you’re lucky, a deer or two.

Slightly different from many of our countryside walks, this one follows the streets of the attractive town of Alton for much of the route before reaching the open riverside space of Flood Meadows.

Just within the boundary of The South Downs National Park, Selborne is an attractive village with 267 acres of countryside looked after The National Trust. This walk follows the Short and Long Lythe, passes three ponds and returns through woodland.

‘The abandoned medieval village of Hartley Mauditt’ is how this place is mysteriously described on the ordinance survey map. As the description suggests, there is not much left of the village other than the 12th century church, a pond and some delightful countryside to explore.