It would be fair to say that most people associate Nottinghamshire with the Legend of Robin Hood and his traditional home in Sherwood Forest. It would also be true to say that the ancient woodland found there is a major pull for walkers who visit the region.
In the past Sherwood Forest covered most of the county, now only a small portion of the original vast woodland still survives but includes the magnificent ‘Major Oak’ when Robin is reputed to have hid and asked Marion to marry him.
Sherwood is a delightful place to ramble with a great path network and well geared up for visitors. But putting this aside you have a flattish county (with odd hilly bits) offering a network of footpaths that take you across ancient field systems and along rivers and canals. The walker is well catered for here with numerous footpaths, bridleways and restricted byways as well as access land to help him explore.
The Chesterfield and the Grantham Canal are very popular and the county has two long distance footpaths – The Robin Hood Way (an 88 mile route that zigzags through the county) and The Trent Valley Way. Then there is Greenwood Community Forest, various parks and nature reserves and a lot of walks that explore areas close to the major towns.
The highest point in the county is a restored colliery spoil tip at Silverhill which says much for the regions coal heritage but the regions natural high point is at Strawberry Bank, Huthwaite.
Take your pick – geographically they are quite close to each other and it’s not worth the debate over which should be classed as the official ‘top’. There is far too much else to do here to worry about things like that.