PLAYING or managing at the highest level, Roy Keane can sometimes be a bit of a hothead - prone to showing his temper with his aggressive and highly-competitive style.

Richard Cornwell

PLAYING or managing at the highest level, Roy Keane can sometimes be a bit of a hothead - prone to showing his temper with his aggressive and highly-competitive style.

Taking over at ambitious Ipswich will not be a bed of roses for Keane either - but Suffolk could provide the Irishman with the perfect place to de-stress and calm down in those mad moments of the football world.

For Keane loves nothing better than to go walking with his dog to relax and think over tactics and problems.

In tranquil Suffolk, he will have plenty of choice, too, to get away from it all when he needs to - to escape into the countryside, far from the hustle and bustle of the county town, and the pressures of Portman Road.

Wherever he chooses to make his home for the next two years at least, he will not be far from peaceful paths, leafy woodlands, rolling fields, rambling rivers and streams, and the area's fabulous big skies.

He could experience the joy of stepping over a stile and heading up a field-edge path or on one of those many public rights of way which go straight across cornfields, where, surrounded on all sides by wheat or barley, the only sounds are the breeze rustling the corn and birdsong above.

If he prefers he can enjoy our other great asset - and take a stroll by the sea, next to isolated beaches or on windswept cliffs, 47 miles of coast to enjoy with often hardly anyone else in sight.

Keane could join one of the county's rambling groups - but probably would rather be on his own.

With an OS Landranger map, plenty of water and snacks in his rucksack, he could walk for hours - down on the marshes at Falkenham near Felixstowe, the wonderful Fynn Valley around Witnesham, Tuddenham and Playford, the eight-mile route round Alton Water, or the river paths on the Orwell, Stour and Deben - the choice is endless.

If like Manchester United manage, Sir Alec Ferguson, he is apt to throw or kick things to let off steam, let's hope he steers clear of Newbourne's glasshouses!

- What is your favourite walk in Suffolk that Roy Keane would enjoy? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

FASTFACTS: Six of the best Suffolk rambles . . .

- Constable Country - avoid the honeypot of Flatford, and there are some lovely walks along the Stour, sunken wooded paths and water meadows.

- Hadleigh is great walking country - set off in any direction from the town to discover the surprise that Suffolk is not flat at all.

- Combine birdwatching with a stroll along the riverpath from Trimley St Mary to Levington.

- Woods, heathland, fields of corn and sheep, and the peaceful Martlesham Creek - walk them all on a five-mile walk at Martlesham.

- Alton Water is a great circular route for regular exercise but take any of the paths leading off the reservoir to enjoy some beautiful scenery around Tattingstone, Holbrook, Stutton and Wherstead.

- For real peace and quiet, try Shingle Street to Alderton and Hollesley and back - nothing but sea, Martello Towers, muddy fields and quiet country lanes.