Popular walks in the UK have a problem – they are too popular. On Sunday, Jane and I decided to take a stroll up the Wrekin, a significant hill in Shropshire. We arrived at about 9:45am, anticipating that we’d beat the rush. However, we were lucky to get a space in the official car park and, by the time we got back down, the double yellow-lined lanes in the vicinity were heaving with parked cars.

It’s good that such basic, uncommercialised activities, such as walking up a hill, are popular. However, it does mean that you get hardly a moment to yourself. Is it selfish to want more peace and quiet? Or maybe the trick is to see out places of beauty that haven’t yet made the national charts?