IF you fancy a walk but prefer to avoid over-exuberant rivers and soggy fields, this country stroll in the city could be right up your street. Much of it is within Worcester Woods Country Park, but Leopard Hill, Ronkswood and Newtown feature too.

The country park is in two parts: the larger of the two comprises Nunnery Wood, an events area and Hornhill Meadows. Nunnery Wood is 20 hectares in size - that's about as big as 30 football pitches - and is jointly owned by Worcester City Council and Christchurch College, Oxford.

Some 10 minutes' walk away is Perry Wood, and a neighbouring meadow.

Perry Wood is about 15 hectares, and is wholly owned by the city council. Both woods are centuries old and important for wildlife. Most prominent at this time of year are the numerous squirrels but Perry Wood also has a large population of jays.

In 1651, during the Battle of Worcester, Oliver Cromwell used Perry Wood as a vantage point. Deep earthworks, known as Cromwell's Trenches, probably date from this time. There is one in the field next to Perry Wood, and another slices through the wood itself, near Lark Hill.

While the two woods are obviously the best parts of this walk, Leopard Hill is enjoyable too, with its panoramic view of the city and Malvern Hills. Its intriguing name derives from Lyppard, a local family. Small mammals inhabit the grassland and scrub on the hill, providing rich pickings for the kestrels which hover overhead.

The walk also includes Lark Hill, a secluded corner of the city, where the large, imposing residences still retain their former stables and coach houses, and old apple orchards flourish next to the railway line north of London Road.

directions

Walk past the Countryside Centre, leaving it behind on your right, to join a bridleway along the edge of Nunnery Wood. When you reach a massive oak tree enter the wood and go straight on along a wide path.

Reaching a T-junction, turn right on the Badger Trail (point 9), but go straight on at point 10, leaving the Badger Trail. Turn left at the edge of the wood and when you reach a stile cross it to join a bridleway. Turn left and follow the bridleway around Newtown Hospital to Newtown Road.

Cross over and turn left for a short distance, until you can join a footpath just before Ronkswood Hospital. The path is fenced at first, but then briefly runs along the edge of Tolladine Golf Course before resuming a fenced course past the hospital until a gate gives access to the grassland of Leopard Hill.

Follow a well-trodden path across the hill towards the Texaco garage and shop (Starmarket) on Tolladine Road. Don't join the road but turn left on another footpath, eventually bearing slightly left uphill to find a stile giving access to Newtown Road. Turn right then cross over to walk along Hillside Close, at the end of which a footpath leads to a T-junction.

Turn right, then left at the next junction and straight on at another. When the track forks you can go straight on across a field into Perry Wood if you want a short cut. For a slightly longer walk, and a much more thorough exploration of Perry Wood, fork right, as indicated by a green arrow.

Walk along the edge of the field then continue on a track along the edge of Perry Wood. When you come to Lark Hill go up steps and forward along the woodland edge to the corner. Turn left, passing a deep trench, and keep straight on into the wood.

Two main paths run almost parallel across the highest part of the wood. Keep to the left-hand one of these, ignoring paths branching left downhill. When the path eventually forks go to the right, heading back towards the field you crossed earlier. Just before you reach the field turn right, still within Perry Wood.

You'll soon come to a crosspaths where there is access to the field. Turn right here (this is where you rejoin the main route if you took the short cut) and walk to a junction where birch trees, gorse and bracken hint at the heathland which used to exist here. Turn right and stay on the main path which eventually forks by a twin-stemmed oak tree. Go to the right.

At a junction with a wide path turn left, heading back towards Lark Hill. Keep going until you draw level with the trench again then turn left between two concrete posts. Follow a path to a residential street (Liverpool Road) and turn right.

Turn right again on Prestwich Avenue, passing Ronkswood Supermarket and continuing as far as Redfern Avenue where you join a path on the left just before the entrance to Nunnery Wood Primary School.

Reaching a T-junction, turn right, then left at the next junction, walking past playing fields, the sports centre and the high school to reach Nunnery Wood. Walk along the right-hand edge of the wood to return to the Countryside Centre.

FACTFILE

Start: Worcester Countryside Centre at Worcester Woods Country Park (behind County Hall); GR877543.

Length: 3.75 miles (6km).

Maps: OS Landranger 150, OS Explorer 204.

Terrain: gentle throughout; woodland, meadow, tracks and streets; muddy in places.

Stiles: 2.

Parking: Countryside Centre.

Buses: Citibus 28 on weekdays (every 20 minutes), Boomerang 29A/30A on Sundays (hourly); numerous other buses also serve various places along the route every few minutes; County Bus Line 08457 125436.

Refreshments: cafe at Countryside Centre, Ronkswood Supermarket on Prestwich Avenue, Starmarket on Tolladine Road.

DISCLAIMER

This walk has been carefully checked and the directions are believed to be correct at the time of publication. No responsibility is accepted by either the author or publisher for errors or omissions, or for any loss or injury, however caused.