BBC Countryfile Magazine

Your guide to the British countryside

BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
This Month’s Contributors
Mary-Ann Ochota, ‘Walk the old way’, page 44 “The Ridgeway is a walk through the history of Britain. It’s also a walk into nature restoration – and the future.” Steph Wetherell, ‘The outdoors is for every body’, page 52 “There is a need for physical
BBC Countryfile Magazine2 min read
April IN THE COUNTRY
Source crystal-clear rivers with a new app – and go with the flow For an exhilarating April day out, take an early morning walk by a beautiful river, such as the Marshaw Wyre in Lancashire. Fresh from the spring on the Marshaw Fell in the Forest of B
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Soothing Forests
April is a month of bustling busyness in the natural world, and yet this increased activity can be easy to miss in the midst of the frenzy of our human lives. Make sure you look after yourself by finding a different way to interact with the natural w
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Ladybirds
Ladybirds awake after spending all winter in ivy, bark and stonework and spread their wings: they are hungry. We love their appetites. So effective are ladybirds at eating aphids on crops that they have been used for biological control since at least
BBC Countryfile Magazine3 min read
Chicken Breeds For New Keepers
The Light Sussex is just one variety of the Sussex breed, but by far the most popular. Its white body plumage with contrasting black markings, mainly in the neck and tail areas, make it undeniably attractive. It has a single comb, and most strains ar
BBC Countryfile Magazine2 min read
Walking For Wellbeing
“You may notice a bit of a walking theme to this issue. And why not? It is springtime now, after all, which traditionally sees people heading out into the countryside in greater number after the long winter months. Walking in the wilds is such a toni
BBC Countryfile Magazine2 min read
Wood Sorrel
Thriving on the edges of woodlands and hedgerows across the British Isles, abundantly flowering wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) provides a feast of pollen and nectar for early pollinators. The whole plant is edible to humans – the tangy, tender leave
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Fox Cubs
Fox cubs are born in spring: their bodies are dumpy, their fur is dark chocolate, their eyes wide and blue. They would have been born somewhere under the woodland floor, or under a shed floor or below garden decking, and are deaf and blind at the beg
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Wonder of Wales
If you really want to know spring has arrived, lift your eyes to the thousands of pink goblets on a magnolia tree the size of a sycamore, silhouetted against a blue sky. Where better to do that than at Bodnant, on Wales’ north coast? Bodnant is one o
BBC Countryfile Magazine3 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
John Craven
Winter has gone and spring encourages lots of us to put on walking boots and anoraks and revel in the simple but life-enhancing pleasure of being out in the countryside. But how many will have skin that is not white? Too few, according to researchers
BBC Countryfile Magazine2 min read
Maps Reveal Hedgerow Wealth
Hedgerows are a precious wildlife habitat and England has a lot of them, a new and highly accurate survey reveals. Hedgerows have been used to divide fields across Britain since the Bronze Age, keeping farm animals contained. But they are also vital
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
New Dinosaur Found On Skye
If you find yourself resting on a rock on the Isle of Skye, beneath your beating heart may lie the stony tomb of a flying dinosaur. Scientists have confirmed the remains of a dinosaur discovered on the west coast of Skye is an entirely new species of
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
John Brown’s Amazing Escape
A West Country museum is celebrating the extraordinary hidden life of John Brown. Brown worked as a herbalist in Dorset in the 1860s, but his early life had been very different. He was born a slave in the USA, around 1811. In his mid-30s, he escaped
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Seals On Canvas
Grey seals are the stars of a new art show by one of Britain’s top landscape painters, Kurt Jackson. When working outdoors on the coast, Jackson became fascinated by the curious seals bobbing among the waves offshore and decided to study them, “their
BBC Countryfile Magazine2 min read
Why Spring Is Sacred
What is it about the blossoms of spring that you find inspiring? I think it’s to do with irrepressibility, if that’s a word! No matter how severe the winter, no matter how dead the trees appear to be or how they seem to have turned to iron or stone w
BBC Countryfile Magazine3 min readCrime & Violence
Adam Henson
If you haven’t heard of dingers, you could be in for a shock. So-called dinger crime is a new internet trend, where quadbikes and off-road motorcycles are stolen before being ridden dangerously to gain hits and likes on social media. Some riders even
BBC Countryfile Magazine3 min read
Nicola Chester
“I can’t recall a time when an event at a village hall wasn’t on the calendar. Humble, functional buildings, village halls are beacons of hope and action, ‘owned’ and run by their community, for their community. When you think about it, it’s a beauti
BBC Countryfile Magazine6 min read
Scotland’s Greatest Trail
“What has been your highlight of the walk so far?” I asked Isaac and Ethan, teenage brothers I’d passed – and been passed by – several times in the final miles of the West Highland Way. “All of it!” Isaac replied enthusiastically, to nods of approval
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
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BBC Countryfile Magazine2 min read
Now Go There
While a guidebook isn’t strictly necessary, Walking the West Highland Way (Cicerone) is a cracker. It contains all the directions both ways, itinerary suggestions for six to nine days, accommodation, shops, eateries and some history too. Best of all,
BBC Countryfile Magazine7 min read
Walk the OLD WAY
The wind whips over the wide fields and a flock of starlings skitters across the sky, tumbling in the gusts. We lean into the weather, eyes stinging and cheeks burning. A few moments later, the squall has blown through and a glittering haze hangs in
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Days Out On The Ridgeway
Take in the section of the Ridgeway through the water meadows of the River Thames, from Goring on Thames to North Stoke. Fully way-marked and free of stiles, the 5½ mile (9km) Aston Rowant Discovery Trail south of Thame begins at the 1,000-year-old c
BBC Countryfile Magazine5 min read
The Outdoors Is For EVERY BODY
Five years ago, I spent a fortnight solo walking and wild camping along St Olav’s Way, a pilgrimage trail in Norway. I walked more than 160 miles, camping on hilltops and in sleepy woodlands, wearing leggings I’d bought at the supermarket, tops from
BBC Countryfile Magazine8 min read
Top 10 bird Havens
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds cares for 180 wildlife-rich reserves across the country, but arguably none offers more spectacular views than Bempton Cliffs. Standing tall on the northern flank of Flamborough Head, a vast promontory tha
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
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BBC Countryfile Magazine5 min read
The Path To Genius
All is calm on the sprawling plateau that stretches south from England’s third-highest mountain. Despite lingering patches of snow clinging to the escarpment edge and the disorientating cloud occasionally drifting across the fell-tops, the Helvellyn
BBC Countryfile Magazine2 min read
The Walk
11.8 miles/19km; 6½–7 hours; hard; 1,030m Start: Lake District National Park car park in Glenridding, CA11 0PA. Terrain: Some roads and tracks, but mostly open fell, with rough ground underfoot at times. Map: OS Explorer OL5 Scan me for the map and r
BBC Countryfile Magazine5 min read
Walking Trousers
Best for… EXTRA FEATURES mountain-equipment.co.uk Material: 92% polyamide, 8% elastane Weight: 438g (size medium) Mountain Equipment’s Ibex Mountain Pants are a firm favourite with our reviewer, mainly thanks to their excellent range of movement, goo
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Your Days Out… In Photos
Email your images to photos@countryfile.com By: Robert Huxley Where: Streamvale Open Farm, Belfast “We took the kids for a fun day at Streamvale Farm’s pumpkin patch in October and met some very laidback and photogenic alpacas.” By: Graham Hill Where
BBC Countryfile Magazine4 min read
Your Countryside
Share your views and opinions by writing to us at: Have your say: BBC Countryfile Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST; or email editor@countryfile.com, tweet us @CountryfileMag or via Facebook facebook.com/countryfilemagazine *We reserve the right
BBC Countryfile Magazine2 min read
Countryside Crossword
1 Sounds like a small bird’s electronic communications! (6) 5 Restrains a horse and walks awkwardly (7) 9 Earthwork like Offa’s ___ or Devil’s ___ (4) 10 Related to the countryside (5) 11 Cultivate… mushroom? (4) 12 E.g. put worm on a fish hook (4, 2
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Poetry Corner
V Ballisat, via email He had taken to walking theStormyhill RoadHeavy of foot to lighten the loadTreading the wild moor in thewind and the rainUsing bracken and heather tocut away the chain. His love had departed from thenorthern shoreTo seek her for
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
BBC Countryfile Magazine
Group editor Paul McGuinness Managing editor Joe Pontin Production editors Margaret Bartlett and Maria Hodson Creative design lead Stacey Black Creative designer Annie Sanderson Content and trends editor Daniel Graham Brand lead Robert Brock CEO Andy
BBC Countryfile Magazine1 min read
Next Month Lambing In Lakeland
Discover the Dales Walk the Broads How nature sounds heal ■
BBC Countryfile Magazine3 min read
Rain Relief
I remember seeing the rain coming. Slipping down the steep fell in sheets, in great greasy ribbons. Undulating. Curving. Rippling over rocks and flashing light and dark, striped like a mackerel. I watched it moving in roving, quick-eyed, hungry-mouth

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