I’ve just moved to London after 7 years in Scotland. Up there, loads of places have great hiking right from the apron.
Does anyone have recommendations for airfields where you can get out for a nice walk in within 250 miles of London?
Bembridge springs to mind, there is a footpath that leads from the north of the airfield to various places.
A personal favourite is Bolt Head, but it may or may not be doable depending on what you’re flying. It’s 600m of VERY smooth grass with no obstacles on either end. You can walk out of the gate at the south east corner of the runway and you are straight on the footpath along the cliffs.
Llanbedr was great when it was open too.
It depends on whether you are after walks in the middle of nowhere, or walks where there is stuff to see and do.
For the former, most GA airfields will do – because they are in the middle of nowhere useful 
For the latter, I can recommend Shoreham EGKA. You can walk to the beach, or do the old railway walk to (I think) Horsham, or get onto the South Downs Way, etc.
Perranporth and Pembrey both coastal and direct on to coastal paths for many miles. The welsh coastal airfields give easy access to very good walking. If you want decent distance Carlisle from the new terminal into the hills.
Perranporth, straight onto the Cornwall coastal path and very speccy too.
Peter wrote:
For the former, most GA airfields will do – because they are in the middle of nowhere useful
That doesn’t necessarily stack up, since although they’re often in the middle of nowhere ‘useful’ (depends what useful is to you) they’re also often only accessible by road. Most hikers don’t want the first few miles to be on a road, but will tolerate it if the destination is worthwhile.
To the OP, you really need to look at the airfield on an OS map so see if any footpaths or bridleways that you might want to use pass nearby.
Guernsey is a super destination. 15 min walk along a country lane from the apron to a beautiful coastal path with great refreshment venues along it. A longer stroll takes you to St Peter Port and get a taxi/bus back to the airport. A definite favourite of ours! Not to mention the cheap fuel which means it’s a cheap(er) day out too….
Indeed, and so is Alderney but in a 1924 England kind of way 
I really like it there and am always up for a meet up.
