Forget golden stone and chocolate-box charm, says Ellie Harrison.Behind the glossy rural glamour of Gloucestershire lies great untamed beauty – swathes of ancient land thrumming with raw nature.You just have to know where to find it...
When holiday guides and travel PR gurus spool through the Cotswold honey-coloured stone rhetoric, I get the same sinking feeling as seeing tourists dining in hotspot steak eateries in London. Please don’t spend your money on that. That’s not the authentic, living, real-world of the place. That’s the shouty part that wants your cash.
Sure, the stone has a yellow tone that fires up the Farrow & Ball-types (it’s more of a grey in the south of the region, which also fires up the Farrow & Ball-types), and indeed, that stone may tell a part of the history of the area as most building took place during the boom years of the wool trade. But it’s all relatively recent history, compared to the Cotswolds I’m going to show you: the natural history of this place, the geology, the prehistoric. This is a guide to the Wild Wolds (without the cots that penned the sheep) minus the gift-shops, the shiny clean 4x4s gliding over tarmac and without all the horses upon horses upon horses.
I know what you’re thinking. How wild can a place be if it doesn’t risk altitude sickness? Surely it’s fells, mountains and uplands that represent real wildness? A long time ago maybe, but as many now recognise, our uplands are disappointingly barren these days having been grazed to the quick. Granted, getting up high blows your hair right out of place and often affords you the chance to stomp around Heathcliff-style all alone and moody. But there’ll be plenty of that kind of free spirit in my guide, where the wind will make your ears ring and where your heartache will belong. As well as a huge diversity of wildlife, the great yard stick of wildness.
Come with me now to the less-explored ‘other side of the river’; to gems on the mighty River Severn itself; and to the secret discoveries among the part of the Cotswolds that you thought you knew.
Denne historien er fra March 2017-utgaven av BBC Countryfile Magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra March 2017-utgaven av BBC Countryfile Magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
We Are an Island Nation - So Let's Protect Our Seas - Living in the UK makes us islanders and personally I'm proud of that definition - not in any political or jingoistic sense, but simply because I love the sea and in this country we are totally surrounded by it.
Living in the UK makes us islanders and personally I'm proud of that definition - not in any political or jingoistic sense, but simply because I love the sea and in this country we are totally surrounded by it. We live inside thousands of miles of coastline, in a nation whose borders were created by nature and made us what we are.
Discover Jurassic Coast - With its towering cliffs, sweeping beaches and pretty seaside towns, the shoreline of Dorset and east Devon is spectacular.
With its towering cliffs, sweeping beaches and pretty seaside towns, the shoreline of Dorset and east Devon is spectacular. Jo Caird fossicks for fossils and dramatic rock formations. It's an auspicious start to my journey along the Jurassic Coast. This 95-mile stretch of shore mostly in Dorset, but nudging just into east Devon - is blessed with awe-inspiring geological formations and fossil deposits that have garnered it recognition as England's only natural UNESCO World Heritage Site. Snaking east from Orcombe Point near Exmouth to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage, it's studded with monumental rock arches, seemingly endless shingle beaches and fossil beds from which treasures were prised that altered our understanding of prehistory.
Viking shores
We picture Vikings marauding coastal settlements, looting and raiding. But what was life really like in the Viking Age? Historian Eleanor Barraclough reveals what the ancient artefacts found on Britain's shores tell us about our formidable forebears
Sea horses
On Cornwall's coastal clifftops, Melanie O'Shea meets the hardy grazing ponies that are helping to restore the land, so nature can flourish once more
A wing and a prayer
From their desks at Boulmer, 1,000 RAF personnel watch the skies for airborne threats to the country. Yet beyond the concrete of the base, vulnerable birdlife flourishes - thanks to the hard work of a small team
Cast in bone
Cuttlefish bones washed up on our shores have been used to make jewellery since ancient times. Jo Caird meets a craftswoman who's keeping the art alive on the Kent coast
EDIBLE SEAWEEDS
An ancient food harvested by humans for millennia, seaweeds bring an intense and rich flavour of the sea to a wide range of dishes, as well as essential mind-and-body-boosting nutrients
Spines and sulky faces
Watch where you put your feet at the beach - a weever fish could be lurking
Sea stars
The playful performances of Britain's bottlenose dolphins attract avid fans - but they deserve personal space
Harris's wildly beautiful beach
Cornwall may pull in the crowds, but one Hebridean strand stuns visitors
