Countryside

Herefordshire is a rural county with an abundance of beautiful and unspoilt countryside. The diverse character of the landscape ranges from the North with it's wooded hills to the rolling hills dotted with farms and orchards in the East, the river valleys in the South and in the west the grazed upland hillsides turn into mountain ridges.

The importance of the landscape is reflected by the fact that two parts of the county are designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty - the Malvern Hills AONB in the east and the Wye Valley AONB in the south.

The Parks & Countryside Service aims to bring you closer to the countryside by managing and maintaining Queenswood, Herefordshire's only Country Park and Arboretum and its sister site Bodenham Lake - the largest area of open water in the County. It also manages various picnic sites dotted across the County where you can also access local loop walks and Herefordshire's six Local Nature Reserves.