Outdoor sights in England
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Brockhill Country Park
With excellent views to the English Channel, Brockhill Country Park is part of an estate dating back to Norman times. A large grassy valley is bisected by the Brockhill Stream as it makes its way to the Royal Military Canal at Hythe. The park has two sign posted trails. The rich mosaic of plants provides shelter for many beautiful butterflies.
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National Forest Maize Maze
Unaware of the maize-maze craze? Puzzle no more at Burton's own Adrian Fisher extravaganza. The maze proper is essentially a big noise-absorbing plot for the relief of parents who've been shushing their kids through England's quieter attractions. A Fun Field is filled with generally boy-centric appeal: football, go-karts, tractors and - out of left field - llamas.
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Weald Country Park
Weald Country Park is a huge parkland dotted with lakes. Once a playground for deer, it became a hunting ground for abbots in 1063. After years of running in the opposite direction, the deer were reintroduced in 1987. Don't miss the visitor centre with its colourful historic displays, and the remains of an Iron Age settlement dating back to 1 BC.
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Reading Abbey
Founded in 1121 by Henry I and consecrated by Thomas Beckett in 1164, this abbey was one of the most influential in medieval England and a popular destination for pilgrims. It once covered most of the town area. Most of the abbey's property was destroyed after its dissolution in 1539 by Henry VIII. Today, the ruins can be seen in the Forbury Gardens.
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Eastern Curve Gardens
This lovely garden is typical of the kind of regeneration happening around Dalston: a project led by the community, for the community, and a roaring success. There are workshops and events almost every day, from gardening sessions to building a greenhouse or benches for the garden, to a pizza-making afternoon using the wood-fired oven.
The site used to be a derelict railway line and the garden has used the old sleepers to make a boardwalk and raised beds for the vegie patch. It’s nice place to just sit down for a while or to meet friendly locals.
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Quarry Park
Stroll along the riverside to enjoy an ice cream in the tumbling gardens of Quarry Park.
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walking tours
Guided walking tours run from outside the tourist office in Castle Hill daily from June to September, and at weekends in June, September and October.
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Ridgeway national trail
The Ridgeway national trail starts near Avebury and runs westwards across Fyfield Down, where many of the sarsen stones at Avebury (and Stonehenge) were collected.
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Undercliff Nature Reserve
A 2-mile hike west of Lyme along the coast path takes you into the lush rainforest-esque Undercliff Nature Reserve. It's a landscape of landslips - partly collapsed cliffs, exposed tree roots and tangles of brambles. Follow the signs from the Holmbush car park.
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Slopes
Opposite the Crescent, a small park called the Slopes rises steeply in a series of grassy terraces. From the top there are views over the centre and across to the grand old Palace Hotel and the former Devonshire Hospital, with its magnificent dome. It is now part of the University of Derby.
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Norfolk Broads
The county's most beautiful attraction, the peaceful Broads are a mesh of navigable slow-moving rivers, freshwater lakes, wild water meadows, fens, bogs and saltwater marshes, flourishing nature reserves and bird sanctuaries. Together they form 201km (125mi) of lock-free waterways. A boat is best to spy on its birds, butterflies and water-loving wildlife.
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Highgate Wood
With more than 28 hectares of ancient woodland, this park is a wonderful spot for a walk any time of the year. It’s also teeming with life, and some 70 different bird species have been recorded here, along with five types of bat, 12 types of butterfly and 80 different kinds of spider. It also has a huge clearing in the centre for sports, a popular playground and nature trail for kids and a range of activities – from falconry to bat-watching – throughout the year.
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Castlefield Urban Heritage Park
The Roman fort that gave birth to Manchester was built in Castlefield in AD 79. Later, this became heart of industrial Manchester, a landscape of enormous, weather-stained brick buildings and rusting cast-iron relics of canals, viaducts, bridges, warehouses and market buildings. Castlefield has now been redeveloped into an Urban Heritage Park.
Aside from the huge science museum, the big draw here is the Castlefield Basin. The Bridgewater Canal runs through it; in summertime thousands of people amble about the place and patronise its fine pubs and trendy restaurants.
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New Forest
Less than 30 minutes from Southampton is an ancient swathe of wild heath and woodland grazed upon by wild ponies, donkeys and deer. A unique place, the not-so-New Forest has an even more singular history and fascinating archaic traditions that date back almost 1000 years.
Wild ponies mooch around its picturesque scrubland, paying no attention to the walkers and cyclists that pant past. Deer flicker in the distance and rare birds flit among the foliage. A scattering of genteel villages dot the landscape and a web of walking and cycling trails connects them.
The New Forest is the only area of England to remain relatively untouched since Norman times, thanks in large part to…
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Dartmoor National Park
At first glance, Dartmoor can come as something of a shock to the senses. The largest stretch of open moorland in the southwest, Dartmoor covers an area of 945sq km (368sq mi) between Plymouth and Exeter. It's a stark, wild and bleakly beautiful place, dotted with granite-topped hills, marshy bogs and patches of purple heather, as well as many weirdly shaped tors.
Dartmoor encloses some of the wildest, bleakest country in England: suitable terrain for the Hound of the Baskervilles (one of Sherlock Holmes' more notorious foes). The landscape and weather can make this an extremely eerie place; try not to think of An American Werewolf in London on a dark, foggy night. With…
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Yorkshire Dales National Park
Sitting snugly between the brooding North York Moors to the east and the dramatic Lake District to the west are the Yorkshire Dales (from the Viking word dalr, meaning 'valleys'), a marvellous area of high hills and moors, cut through by rugged stone walls and spotted with extravagant houses and the faded, spectral grandeur of monastic ruins.
Thankfully, nature's feast has been protected as a national park since the 1950s, assuring its status as a walker's and cyclist's wonderland. But the fabulous scenery attracts plenty of four-wheeled visitors, making the roads very crowded - especially during the summer. If you can't avoid busy summer weekends, try to come by bus or…
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Williamson Park
Lancaster's highest point is the 22-hectare spread of Williamson Park , from which there are great views of the town, Morecambe Bay and the Cumbrian fells to the north. In the middle of the park is the Ashton Memorial, a 67m Baroque folly built by Lord Ashton (the son of the park's founder, James Williamson) for his wife.
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Greenwich Park
Handsome venue of the 2012 Games equestrian events, this park is one of London's loveliest expanses of green, with a rose garden, picturesque walks and astonishing views from the crown of the hill near the statue of General Wolfe, opposite the Royal Observatory. Covering a full 73 hectares, this is the oldest enclosed royal park and is partly the work of André Le Nôtre, the landscape architect who designed the palace gardens of Versailles for Louis XIV, the Sun King. The park is rich in historic sights, including a teahouse near the Royal Observatory, a cafe behind the National Maritime Museum, a deer park, tennis courts in the southwest and a boating lake at the Queen's…
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