11.5 Miler From Currys

It is surprising how easy it is to escape from urban Luton to quiet open countryside. This walk is a short circuit from Bushmead to Lilley and back.

Particularly lovely late on a June evening, during the summer when the fields are full of ripe crops or in winter to blow away the cobwebs.

Walk from Luton Airport Parkway station along the disused railway to Welwyn before climbing to Chiltern Green and returning via a ruined Tudor castle and the airport perimeter.

A moderate stile-free walk The walk starts in the village of Great Offley, heading south-west along the ridge above Hitchin before descending to the small hamlet of Charlton. From there, there is a steady, scenic climb back to Offley.

A circuit from Pegsdon, through the Pegsdon Hills Nature Reserve to Deacon Hill with its ancient earthworks. Return past a mature beech wood and Knocking Hoe reserve.

This route offers the walker some of the most stunning views in the whole of the Chilterns and visits a number of important wildlife sites featured in the book by Gay Beattie "The Pilgrim’s Progress Wild Flowers and Where to Find Them in The Chilterns." Pegsdon and Deacon Hills were a favourite of the writer and preacher John Bunyan who referred to them in as the "Delectable Mountains".

This is a surprisingly hilly walk for this general area, being the northern end of the Chilterns AONB, mostly through rolling farmland, with some wonderful views across the flatlands of south Bedfordshire to the north, especially if the air is clear. Most of it is along the edges of/through fields, along grass & hard-surfaced paths & tracks. There are two tree-covered 'alleys'. It passes a large late-Tudor manor house. You will walk part of the Icknield Way & visit Pegsdon Hills Nature Reserve.

Starting from Hexton this walk on the borders of Befordshire and Hertfordshire includes the attractive downland between Telegraph and Deacon Hills and a section of the Icknield Way.

A short circuit from Preston village through Hitch Wood, one of the finest woods in the North Chilterns. Worth following for spectacular bluebells in spring or as a pre-pub leg stretch.