If you head to the Clent Hills, especially during the week, you'll enjoy great views and some peace and quiet.

Despite the millions of people who visit the Clent Hills every year, there are often surprisingly few on a weekday, even in summer.

But even at weekends visitors tend to be thinly spread because this is access land where you can walk wherever you like without the need to stick to specific paths. In fact, you can't really go wrong with a visit to these lovely hills, which comprise a mixture of open country and woodland.

The views from the tops are truly panoramic, encompassing numerous counties. The Black Country towns and the cities of Worcester, Wolverhampton and Birmingham are all in view, while the uplands easily visible in clear weather include the Malverns, Abberley Hill, Bredon Hill, Cotswolds, Clee Hills, Wenlock Edge, the Wrekin, Black Mountains, Ysgyryd Fawr, Waseley Hills and Lickey Hills, to name only the most obvious.

Ironbridge Gorge can be identified by the power station chimney, and Cannock Chase by the telecommunications tower and the slight bump of Castle Ring Hillfort.

Uffmoor Wood, a beautiful Woodland Trust nature reserve, also has open access and many paths to explore, including three waymarked routes. The longest of these is the best, or you can make up your own route by combining any number of different paths, waymarked or not.

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust also welcomes visitors to its Penorchard Meadows nature reserve, one of the largest flower-rich grasslands remaining in the West Midlands. It partly occupies the site of the deserted mediaeval settlement of Kenelmstowe, which developed near a so-called miraculous spring (now St Kenelm's Well) said to gush from the spot where the Saxon boy-king, Kenelm of Mercia, was murdered by his sister.

FACTFILE

Start: Adams Hill, Clent, grid ref SO925797.

You can see for miles on the hills.

Length: Four to six-and-a-half miles/6.5 to 10.5km (it depends which paths you choose).

Maps: OS Explorer 219, OS Landranger 139.

Terrain: Short turf, meadows and woodland. There is a short, steep climb at the start but most slopes are gentle.

Footpaths: Excellent, apart from poor waymarking between Hagley Wood Lane and St Kenelm's Church.

Stiles: Five.

Parking: Adams Hill, between the Fountain and the Hill Tavern.

Public transport: Bus 144 to Bromsgrove then Hanson's 318 Stourbridge service to Adams Hill; alternatively, trains from Worcester serve Hagley station, 25 minutes' walk from Adams Hill; www.traveline.org.uk or Traveline 0871 200 2233.

Refreshments: Pubs at Adams Hill and Vine Lane, restaurant at Adams Hill, National Trust café at Hagley Wood Lane (open 10am-4pm Tuesday-Sunday).

DIRECTIONS

1 Walk past the Hill Tavern on to the open hill and bear left on any rising path. After an initial steep climb you will arrive at a plateau. From now on, whichever paths you choose, it's a very easy climb to the top of Clent Hill, marked by a toposcope and four standing stones - the Four Stones. Head north-east from the Four Stones; that is, along a wide path to the left of the stones. A slight descent into woodland leads to a junction. Go straight on, soon climbing gently to another viewpoint. Continue in much the same direction along the top of the ridge, on a wide path which soon descends beneath beech trees to Hagley Wood Lane.

2 Turn left, then join a footpath at a stile on the right. Two paths are waymarked: choose the right-hand one. It's not particularly clear, but you should go diagonally to meet the right-hand field boundary and then follow it down to another stile. Turn right to a third stile and ignore a waymark directing you forward. Turn right instead, looking for a hedge gap, after which the path is easily followed to St Kenelm's Church.

3 Turn left past the front of the church and continue in the same direction through the valley where St Kenelm's Well is situated. After going through a gate, follow the stream to Penorchard Meadows. The right of way keeps to the edge of the meadows, close to the stream, marked by a series of gates. Turn right when you reach Spring Farm's driveway and cross Uffmoor Lane to Uffmoor Wood.

4 Walk a few metres into the wood then turn right at a junction. When you come to another junction take the path on the left, marked by a yellow chevron, if you're confident you can find your way through the wood. If not, continue straight on to find a car park where a map of the wood is displayed. Having consulted the map, you can take a walk through the wood from this point before eventually rejoining Uffmoor Lane, or you can simply rejoin it at once. Turn left along the lane and keep straight on at a junction with Chapel Lane.

5 Join a footpath at a stile by The Wesleys' driveway. The well-trodden path leads gently uphill to meet a lane. Cross to a path almost opposite and climb through woodland, keeping straight on at all junctions to the top of Walton Hill. Take the right-hand path and continue across the hill-top, with occasional waymarks providing guidance. These are not the usual type; instead, they are narrow dark-blue arrows. Ignore a bridleway branching right and continue to a bridleway/footpath junction. Fork right on the footpath (yellow arrow), and then right again at another dark-blue arrow. Descend through woodland.

6 Cross a stile to the junction of Clatterbach Lane and Vine Lane. Turn right, crossing the end of Clatterbach Lane, and then take a bridleway on the left, before the sign for St Kenelm's Pass. Fork right at a junction, going uphill into woodland. Keep roughly straight on at all subsequent junctions, climbing uphill until you meet a path waymarked with a red arrow. Turn left, then right, to return to Adams Hill.

9:15am Wednesday 1st August 2007

You can visit St Kenelm's Church.

Four Stone Folly on top of the hills.

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