If I were to ask you to think of a memorable adventure that you have had in any of our local hills, it is quite likely to have happened in the Chilterns, so looming is their benevolent presence; they are like having a family of friendly giants living next door: difficult to avoid and hard not to have fun in their company.

But as the world slowly opens up again, I think it's time for us to go slightly further afield for a change…

So come with me, take a ride, to a handsome sandstone ridge, fringed with pines, graced with mansions and abandoned chapels, pocked with pits and haunted with spooks and secrets.

To help you get your bearings and to enable you to put this place into some context before we depart, it may be useful to take a little local stroll beforehand.

And where do we go to get a good view of our target? You've guessed it: why, it's up into the Chilterns again.

If you walk out of Pirton, up Wood Lane and turn right at the top of the hill, you will come to a fine viewpoint at a large gap in the hedge. As you look to the north and the northwest, you will see a range of low-level hills on the horizon. This is our destination: the Greensands Ridge in Bedfordshire.

And it is a continuing source of pride to me that we have a third named range of hills within tramping distance of our fair hometown, to add to the previously discussed East Anglian Heights and those omnipresent Chilterns.

This ridge is formed primarily of lower greensand- a sedimentary rock laid down in a warm tropical sea in the Cretaceous period some 110 million years ago- and as such, it is slightly older than the chalky Chilterns. A wide vale of lower-lying gault clay some ten to fifteen miles wide separates the two.

Greensand contains an iron rich mineral known as glauconite that can give the rock a green tinge and this can be seen on many of the exposed rock faces in local quarries.

The ridge stretches from Leighton Buzzard in the southwest and then heads northwest, eventually reaching its end in Cambridgeshire.

It underlies many familiar local villages and towns, some of the names including a clue to their bed rock: Woburn Sands; Ampthill; Clophill; Campton; Chicksands; Old Warden; Shefford, Potton and Sandy.

The underlying geology make for a pleasing and gently hilly landscape, supporting a mosaic of habitats including heathland as well as pine, deciduous and mixed woodland. All are ideal for a rich variety of wildlife, and this is a subject we will return to very soon.

The Bedfordshire Greensands Ridge Walk is a clearly waymarked trail that enables you to explore the full length of this geological feature- just follow the signs emblazoned with the muntjac symbol.

And as you stroll its 40 miles- from Leighton Buzzard to Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire- you too can experience the views that so enamoured the rich landowners of the past, encouraging them to grab the best spots for their country seats.

These include the impressive ancestral piles at Woburn Abbey and Shuttleworth; both surrounded by beautiful and manicured parkland that makes the most of the landscape.

Some say that this tradition continues today with those more modern equivalents: golf courses, safari parks and holiday resorts.

In the past the ridge's various rocks and minerals have provided work, income and even wealth for some: sand for construction, casting and glass making; sandstone blocks- known as 'Carstone'- for building and the extraction of fine-grained clay known as 'fullers earth' which has various industrial applications.

Some extraction still continues today but in fewer places and in somewhat larger commercial operations.

For evidence of this natural bounty, you need look no further than the dark sandstone walls of the handsome churches that dot the district: two local favourites of mine are the 14th century St Marys on the hill in Lower Gravenhurst and the impressive All Saints at Shillington- a fine edifice with many personal family connections.

The dark walls of both provide a fine counterpoint to the lighter chalk- more technically Totternhoe Stone- and flint of our own St Marys.

To get a taste of the Greensands Ridge, a wander around the nature reserve, the banks of the River Flit and the woods between Clophill and Chicksands is a good place to start. You can even walk a section of the national trail and a guide or map will help you plot some wonderful circular walks of varying length.

At Clophill the trail passes by the restored ruins of the 12th century chapel of St Mary the Virgin, perched high on the valley side.

From here you get an impressive view of the Chilterns on the southern horizon and the information boards tell you all you need to know about the site's fascinating history. Well nearly all…

After this church was replaced by a larger and more modern one in the village in the 19th century, it was deconsecrated and left to decay.

However, local interest in the ruins did not wain and tales of haunting started to attract even more visitors over the subsequent decades.

Curious sightseers were latterly joined by motley bands of nocturnal mischief makers.

The resulting noisy midnight 'black masses', parties and assorted shenanigans reached a peak in the 70s and 80s and 'something had to be done'.

Which it was. Order and the site itself were restored and today it is peaceful and quite lovely.

However, a few miles to the east you can still find some spooks, but of a different kind.

The long-used military base at Chicksands - which includes an apparently haunted 14th Century priory- is now used by the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre (DISC) and is the headquarters of the Joint Intelligence Training Group (JITG): some real 'spooks.

Following the footpaths very carefully- and obviously obeying all the warning notices- you can actually walk quite near to the base's live firing range; the pop of small arms fire is an exciting accompaniment to one's country walk, I find.

And while you're on 'The Hill' nearby, you can see the concrete pads that once supported a huge top-secret cold war listening installation. Fascinating modern history.

So, there's lots to see and do on the Greensands Ridge.

And I don't think that the Chilterns- those friendly giants that live next door- will be too jealous that we've spent some time elsewhere.

They know that we will be back with them soon enough.