Reynisfjara Beach, Iceland
WHEN you first set eyes on Reynisfjara Beach (also known as Black Sand Beach) at Iceland’s southernmost town, Vík í Mýrdal, more commonly known as Vik, you will feel as if you are at the end of the world. Dramatic rock pillars (the Reynisdrangar basalt sea stacks) rise from the sea against the backdrop of bleak, jet-black sand and white sea foam, fierce Atlantic waves and ever-changing light under hexagonal cliffs.
As you take in the moody atmosphere, you may imagine you’re in a film set and, indeed, the beach appeared in Game of Thrones. The sea stacks feature in ancient legends and are home to thousands of seabirds, such as puffins, guillemots and fulmars. However, the beach, which is about 112 miles from the capital, Reykjavik, is not for swimming: the waves here are dangerous. You should keep well away and never turn your back on them.
Live in Iceland
Almost next door to the Icelandic House of Parliament, this villa has five bedrooms, elegant reception rooms, including a beautifully panelled entrance hall, and murals by Swedish artist Greta Björnsson. $4.2 million (about £3.34m), Sweden Sotheby’s International Realty (00 46 31 182 200; www.sothebys realty.com)
Tharros Beach, Sardinia, Italy
Denne historien er fra June 22, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 22, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
