Walks

The Garden is a national reference collection of 7,000 different types of plant, making it the most compact yet diverse collection of plants in the World – there is even more biological diversity here than there is in tropical rain forests and other biodiversity hotspots.

Six miles south of Oxford on the A4074 is the Harcourt Arboretum. This is an integral part of the plant collection of the Botanic Garden.

There are no walls, glasshouses or straight lines at the Arboretum - it is almost as if it were designed to be the antidote to the formality of the Botanic Garden in central Oxford.

Withymead Nature Reserve is situated between Goring-on-Thames and South Stoke in Oxfordshire and is a hidden gem that appeals to naturalists, walkers, artists and families.

At Waterperry Gardens there are beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers, classical borders, modern planting, secret corners and long vistas. Home to the renowned horticultural college between 1932 and 1971, the emphasis was on food production rather than spectacular ornamental gardens.

Rousham House is a Jacobean country house at Rousham in West Oxfordshire on the River Cherwell.

Chimney Meadows lies along the banks of the River Thames, near Bampton in west Oxfordshire. The site totals 250 hectares of floodplain flower rich meadows, wet woodland, 16km of hedgerows and interlaced with 18km of waterways.

The Folly Farm Centre is at the heart of Folly Farm, a stunning 250-acre nature reserve close to Bath and Bristol which is owned and managed by Avon Wildlife Trust. It is a very special place - a place to learn and explore, a place for inspiration, a place to lie in the grass and discover a new world.

A rare survival of a 17th-century duck decoy in working order. One of only a few left in the country.

Boarstall Tower is a 14th-century moated gatehouse, built by John de Haudlo and once part of a fortified manor house, set in gardens. Note: property is tenanted

Croome was 'Capability' Brown's first complete landscape, making his reputation and establishing a new style of garden design which became universally adopted over the next 50 years.

Castle Gardens is a nice park for the kids to play in, or to picnic. Itis located in the old grounds of Wallingford Castle and admission is free.

Also of interest are the Kine Croft and Bull Croft as large recreational areas of grassland. There are also Saxon walls which are free to explore.

Brill Windmill represents one of the most ancient and valuable post mills in the country. The mill retains much of the original machinery, although it is not in working order. It is open to the public on Sundays during the summer. Set at the edge of Brill common, the windmill affords magnificent views of the surrounding countryside.

The Oxford Canal Walk links Oxford to Coventry, passing through the quiet rural landscape of the south Midlands. It passes beside 43 locks, numerous wooden life bridges and cast iron bridges and through one tunnel, yet crosses only one road.

Warburg is the premier nature reserve of the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust and nestles in the Bix valley near Henley-on-Thames in Oxon.

The mixture of chalk grassland and ancient woodland makes it an ideal site for birds and butterflies. Over 2,000 species of plant, animal and fungus have been recorded here.

Attractions include:

• wood anemones

Uffington Castle is all that remains of an early Iron Age (with underlying Bronze Age) hill fort in Oxfordshire, England. It covers about 32,000 square metres and is surrounded by two earth banks separated by a ditch with an entrance in the eastern end.

Radcot Bridge is often claimed as the "oldest bridge on the Thames", having been built around 1200. The Cistercian monks of St Mary at Cîteaux in Normandy were granted land for the purpose by King John. Much of the structure was broken down during the famous battle which took place here in 1387, although it was apparently reconstructed six years later.

Little Wittenham Nature Reserve, best known for the prominence of the Wittenham Clumps, has been designated a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

Deddington Castle was built on a Saxon site as a motte and bailey castle in the 11th century by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, the half brother of William the Conqueror. William de Chesney, Lord of Deddington, held the castle in the mid 12th century but in the late twelfth century it was seized by the Crown during the struggle between King Richard and his brother Prince John.

Wroxton Abbey is a Jacobean house, with a 1727 garden partly converted to the serpentine style between 1731 and 1751. It is 2.5 miles (4 km) west of Banbury, off the A422, in Wroxton St. Mary. It is now Fairleigh Dickinson University's English campus.

Edgehill Country Park extends to some sixteen acres of mixed grass and primary Bluebell woodland, with extensive views over the rural South Warwickshire countryside.

Edgehill Country Park Ltd
Temperance House
Langdon Lane, Radway
Warwickshire CV35 0UQ

Burton Dassett Hills Country Park is run by Warwickshire County Council. Great views from the hills and good for walking or kite flying. The site comprises a series of hilltops with good views in all directions and Fox Covert, a small woodland with a surfaced footpath.

Faringdon Folly is a tower nestling under the Scottish fir-capped summit of Faringdon Hill. The hill, half a mile east of Faringdon, offers impressive views over the Thames Valley and the Berkshire Downs. Restored and reopened in 1982, it is now a familiar local landmark and popular tourist attraction.

The old parks surrounding the village of Sherborne contain some ancient trees, including old veteran Oak, Ash, Beech and Lime. These provide important nesting and feeding sites for birds, bats (some 13 species, including the Lesser Horseshoe) and many insects. Barn owls and woodpeckers can sometimes be glimpsed or heard.

The two hills: Round Hill and Castle Hill are known as the Wittenham Clumps.

Coopers Hill Local Nature Reserve is an area of ancient Beech woodland situated to the south-east of Gloucester on the Cotswold escarpment. The reserve is an internationally important wildlife area forming part of the larger Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation.

In the 1690s, Stowe had a modest early-baroque parterre garden, owing more to Italy than to France, but it has not survived, and, within a relatively short time, Stowe became widely-renowned for its magnificent gardens created by Lord Cobham.