Distance 6 miles (9.6 km)
Classification Moderate
Duration 2 hours 30 minutes
Begins Melford Hall
OS grid reference TL866483
Walk in a nutshell
From Melford Hall you'll sally forth up the gorgeous Roman-straight drive towards Kentwell Hall. Passing woods and crossing fields, the route makes its way to the hamlet of Bridge Street before returning to Melford Hall via streams, leafy glades and open farmland.
Why it's special
This is a ramble through the Suffolk countryside with plenty of opportunities to get your camera out for classy landscape shots. A boon for hikers with a fear of hills, this walk meanders gently along, affording characteristic Suffolk vistas of fields, hillocks and the towers of far-off churches poking above distant woods. The peace and quiet that comes from a route that's almost entirely off-road gives walkers a chance to listen to the singing of the birds and the plangent babbling of brooks, and wonder why their lives don't contain more such moments.
Keep your eyes peeled for
The 16th-century Melford Hall with its Edwardian gardens and fountain. One ancient hall not enough for you? No need to worry, you'll also pass the moated 500-year-old Kentwell Hall. A brick-built Tudor mansion, it sports extensive gardens as well as a rare-breeds farm.
Recover afterwards
In Melford Hall's tearooms or, for something a little stronger, try the majestic Bull Hotel in Long Melford. Built in 1450, the inn offers a wide-ranging menu, real ales, cream teas and an Elizabethan fireplace.
If it's tipping down
Melford Hall is best known for its association with Beatrix Potter (pictured), who visited her relations here along with her menagerie of animals. You can visit her bedroom and see her Jemima Puddleduck toy, take in the store of captured naval treasure, or simply crash out on the sofas in the Great Hall.
How to get there
Take the train along the scenic Gainsborough line to Sudbury, then the 236 bus to Long Melford. Melford Hall is just over 3 miles from Sudbury.
Step by step
1 Turn right from Melford Hall and cross the road. Follow the pavement up the hill, bear left into Kentwell Hall Park, and walk up the long drive.
2 Just before the metal gates of Kentwell Hall, bear left at the signpost and go through a gate, passing a small rotunda on the right. Go through two more gates and turn right, passing the hall on your right. Follow the wide farm dirt track north for nearly 1 mile.
3 At the top of the track, just before Kiln Farm, bear right at the signpost, heading east. Follow the grassy path past Kiln and Ashen Grove woods to the left. At the end of Brakes Ley Grove (on the right), go left along a grassy path, following it round to the left. Keep the small tree line to your right as though heading for Rowhedge Farm across the open field in front of you.
4 At the signpost, by a lone tree in front of you, turn right and follow a very distinct path across an open field, heading for a gap in the tree line.
5 At the gap continue along the path downhill. At the village of Bridge Street turn right and then left, crossing a road. Follow the footpath down the hill, passing along some back gardens on your right.
6 Cross the stile and bear right. Go over another stile and cross the busy A134, heading for the minor road opposite. Follow this and at the signpost turn right, keeping Chad brook to your right.
7 Follow the brook and pass a ford on your right. At an open, sloping field in front of you, just by a hedgerow going up the hill to your left, turn right through a clear gap. Then cross over the brook by a footbridge with handrails.
8 Turn left, now keeping the brook to your left. Follow the meandering path.
9 By another distinctive ford on your left, turn right up a slight incline and then bear left by the pillbox hidden in the trees on the left corner. Follow the edge of the field with the trees and the now-hidden brook to your left.
10 As you walk along the flat you'll see a radio mast to your right at the top of the hill. Go past the thin hedge line, heading up the hill to your right.
11 At the signpost by the second hedge line turn right and go up the hill, keeping the hedge line left. At the top cross the busy A134 again and keep straight on along Hare Drift Road.
12 Go through the Cherry Lane garden centre, turn left at Long Melford High Street until you return to Melford Hall.
