CATEGORIES

Why my heart belongs to the Cotswolds

Arguably our most-loved Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and long at the top of tourists’ must-visit lists, the allure of the Cotswolds is as strong as ever. Paula Lester meets seven people who are lucky enough to call it home

Making history live

In the second of two articles, John Goodall looks at the stylish reinvention of this grand Regency house, home to the Berkeley family for more than four centuries

A fawn too far?

A young roe deer has a close encounter and an Indian summer saves the barley

The end of capercaillie?

CAPERCAILLIE numbers in Scotland have almost halved in the past 10 years and the bird is heading towards extinction in the UK, according to a new report by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

Five decades of rare progress

THE great and the good of the rare native-breeds world descended on the House of Lord’s last week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Royal help for rural people

SOME £250,000 has been made available by the Royal Countryside Fund (RCF) for rural community organisations, it has been announced. The grants, which can be up to £25,000, are part of the RCF’s Supporting Rural Communities programme and the organisation is ‘keen to hear from people whose community projects are responding to specific needs in their village or town’.

How to make friends and entertain people

These glorious gardens are the perfect places to enjoy the last of the summer sun

Go with the flow

Scotland's natural capital is proving a boost to its prime property market

Plastic fantastic

Not all heroes wear capes, some are more likely to put on the wrong trousers and ask their dog if he wants 'more cheese'. Harry Pearson meets Wallace and Gromit, two of our best-loved Plasticine characters

Who are you calling prickly?

Hedgehogs live on the fringes of our world, adored, yet often unwittingly harmed. Spurred by her own encounter with Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Sarah Sands explores what they tell us about our relationship with Nature and life

An architectural accident

In the first of two articles, John Goodall tells the story of how a stable was replaced by a splendid Regency seat

Fifty shades of green

Plants have developed surprising ways of spreading their seed, says John Wright, as he explores the unusual and risqué manner in which some species reproduce

Roll out the green carpet

Dusty periwinkles may have given groundcover a bad name, but, as John Hoyland points out, large plantings of a single species can be both practical and key to a garden's design. The trick is to choose the right plants

Tea with Miss Jekyll

GRAHAM STUART THOMAS perhaps the greatest gardener ever was for many years gardens adviser to the National Trust. It was not his only career, because he started his working life as a nurseryman and ended it as the author of many of our most influential books about plants and gardens. But his work for the Trust established the principles by which some 120 gardens were planted, managed and enjoyed. He would have been thrilled to learn that the Trust recently acquired Munstead Wood.

A Scottish fairy tale

The garden of Aldourie Castle, Loch Ness The home of Mr and Mrs Anders Povlsen The team of owners, designer and gardeners has waved a magic wand over this 500-acre estate, writes George Plumptre, rejuvenating the parkland and arboretum and brilliantly enhancing the castle's heritage with boldly contemporary schemes

Back to the wall

Solitary daily pacing of Hadrian's Wall, in the footsteps of Roman soldiers, brings back family memories

For the love of a lady

An image of Mr Sponge’s sporting bride, a Danish landscape and sun-kissed Pyramids are stars of a summer sale of paintings at Christie’s

There's snow place like Crans-Montana

The Swiss ski resort is finally ready to step out of the shadows of its glitzier cousins

A clean passport of health

The world of men's wellness is booming, but can be a scary place for the uninitiated. The best solution is a holiday health spa, preferably in the sun

Green around the grilles

Deadly nightshade, hemlock and giant viper's bugloss festoon the Chelsea Physic Garden on its 350th anniversary. Russell Higham explores this lush London oasis and its history of growing lethal and healing plants

Harmonic progression

Originally laid out in the 1630s, this latest iteration of the garden, says Charles Quest-Ritson, has found a perfect balance between planting and design

Those magnificent birds we never notice

That scrap of brown flying by may be a house sparrow, a dunnock or a skylark, birds so nondescript that they are lumped together in a single category. However, there's more to 'little brown jobs' than meets the eye

Feudal splendours

In the second of two articles on this outstanding castle, John Martin Robinson describes the transformative representation of the Victorian interiors over the past three decades

Concrete results

John Betjeman admired Sir Denys Lasdun's work, but The King disliked it, and opinion remains divided to this day. Either way, the man who viewed buildings as landscape' has left an indelible mark on London

Cinders, you shall go to the (wrecking) ball

The threat of fire is never far from our heritage buildings. Lucy Denton weighs up what we can do to protect them and whether it's worth rebuilding them at all...

The coast is clear

The buoyant Cornwall market offers a bit of everything for the country-house buyer, from spy novels to spectacular sea views

Not your average Fiesta

As more than 150,000 fans of a bygone age of cars and fashion descend on Goodwood for its annual Revival, Octavia Pollock talks to the Duke of Richmond about 75 years of motorsport on his West Sussex estate

Labour's vision for rural Britain

We invited Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition, to set out his ideas for the countryside

Generations game

INSPIRED by the television series Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, the community-interest social club Young At Heart (YAH) is helping elderly residents to combat loneliness in the East Sussex village of Heathfield.

Hen harrier's helping hand

TWENTY-FOUR hen-harrier chicks have been reared and released as part of a ‘pioneering’ project to help rebuild the population of the endangered bird, it has been announced.