Pepper Arden and Cowton Castle

Three and a half miles out and back from East Cowton up the old Pepper Arden road to South Cowton Castle and St Mary's church, an easy hour and a half almost entirely on a hard-core farm track. Start in the village near the Beeswing, where there is roadside parking; the firm track takes a pushchair and makes this the most reliable wet-weather walk in the north of the patch. The optional field return below the castle hill has a couple of stiles and a water meadow worth watching for heron and mallard, and there is stock on that pasture, so leads on for the loop.