Walkers hoping to burn off some of the excesses of Christmas have rushed to book the final places for a winter walks programme around Herefordshire.

A walk through Ledbury on December 29 is one of seven walks featured in the programme, which takes place over a four-day period, from December 28-31, as part of Hereford-shire Council's inaugural Winter Walking Festival.

The four-mile Ledbury walk, led by members of the Ramblers Association, will start in Ledbury town centre and will take walkers through orchards and under Frith Wood, before proceeding to Wellington Heath, which gives fine views over Ledbury and across Herefordshire. They will then return to the centre of Ledbury for a well-deserved drink.

This is the first time that a winter walking project has taken place around the area and was launched following the success of the summer walking festival, which took place around Herefordshire in June, and attracted more than 1,000 participants over a nine-day period.

Herefordshire Council's tourism enterprise assistant Amanda Lloyd said: "The Summer Walking Festival was extremely successful, so we decided to launch a winter festival as well. We weren't sure what the response would be, but it has proved to be very successful, and every walk is fully booked."

Other areas included in the programme include the Golden Valley, Wigmore, Turnastone, Dorstone and around Leominster.