England offers a bounty of scenic country walks, rich with beautifully landscaped gardens, dense woodlands, picturesque villages and historic landmarks. On our most recent sojourn, we explored the rugged beauty of the Surrey Hills and wandered amid ancient stone circles and through a majestic estate in Somerset.

Box Hill Juniper Top

The moderately challenging 4-mile Box Hill Juniper Top hike begins just north of Dorking at Salomons Memorial. This viewpoint overlooking the grassy, undulating landscape of South Downs and Dorking — a quaint town full of art galleries, independent boutiques and antique shops — is a tribute to the local financier Leopold Salomons, who was instrumental in documenting the region’s flora. From here, we continued on through an ancient box forest and yew woodland, then across chalk downlands and meadows punctuated by oak and beech trees (note that we spotted some poisonous dog’s mercury hidden in the shade). The trail up to Juniper Top is a bit steeper with some rocky sections, but the panoramic vistas of the rolling countryside, river valleys and lush meadows of the Surrey Hills from this plateau made the effort worthwhile. You can follow the trail back down to the Box Hill parking lot or, if you have the energy, ascend higher up to the Gallops, situated along the top of Mickleham Downs. Winston Churchill would land his planes on this wide strip of meadow when he visited Lord Beaverbrook, a press baron who acted as the minister of aircraft production for a time during World War II. For guests staying at the Beaverbrook hotel, this circular hike is especially easy to access: A trail leads directly from the estate to the landing site.

Avebury World Heritage Site

Situated about an hour east of Bath, halfway between Estelle Manor and The Newt in Somerset hotels, Avebury is a National Trust-protected site containing a prehistoric stone circle and a 16th-century manor house (temporarily closed for renovations). While Stonehenge, located 45 minutes south, is more architecturally sophisticated, Avebury boasts the world’s largest prehistoric stone circle and offers more hiking opportunities. We chose the 3.5-mile (round-trip) Windmill Hill hike, which starts at the museum dedicated to archaeologist Alexander Keiller, who excavated Avebury in the 1930s. We followed this walking trail across soft, green fields, through wildflower meadows and past grazing cows. The ascent up to Windmill Hill and its Neolithic settlement was moderately difficult, but the views over Silbury Hill (Europe’s largest artificial prehistoric mound), the Wiltshire countryside and Avebury’s stones were spectacular. From here, the path descended past a smaller Neolithic stone circle to the village of Avebury, which is surrounded by the henge. After this memorable hike, we relaxed at the Red Lion, a classic pub in the heart of town that dates to 1802, for pints and baked Camembert.