As our babies began to grow up, I realised that I wanted our family to spend as much of our free time as possible outdoors. But we soon became tired of the same local walks and wanted to explore what else the countryside around us had to offer. I purchased all the OS maps to Hampshire, and our neighbouring counties of West Sussex and Surrey, and I began to scour them for footpaths that led to castles or ruins, tracks beside rivers with bridges and fords, trails through woodland and farms or walks along beaches and estuaries. Along the way we found pubs with gardens, playgrounds, benches with views and places to paddle. As a very amateur photographer, I began to record our adventures.

One day my husband said to me, “you should share some of those walk on social media”. From that, The Ambling Path was born and 16 000 Facebook followers later, it seems like he had a good idea.

I love that we are able to showcase the beauty of our countryside and hopefully facilitate other families in being able to get out and discover new walks. I always say that ours are more than just walks, that they are also family adventures. Let the children take their time and stop to climb trees, spot wildlife, eat a picnic, collect treasures, dip their toes in the stream or play hide and seek among the rocks. Each one of our suggestions has the potential to become a family day out and our website should have enough ideas to mean that you will never have that, “where shall we go this weekend?” problem again.

Use the search function to find walks in your locality or walks that suit your mood. We also love finding walks that celebrate our changing seasons, so under the seasonal tab you will find walks with bluebells, wild garlic, heather, sunflowers, autumn colour and more.

Finally, if you feel like your children are still in need of a little bit of encouragement, browse our ideas for walking activities that will turn your stroll into a fun adventure.