Top 10 peak district villages

BACK in 1606, Lord North was unwell. His “lingering consumptive disorder” baffled his doctors. A stay in a remote hunting lodge cadged from a friend hadn’t helped, but on a country ride he came across

Eleven friends of COUNTRY LIFE pen a love letter to their small, yet oh so distinctive patches of the British Isles, from the big skies of the north Norfolk coast to the street art of Belfast, from the glens of Perthshire to the Exe estuary in Devon via the apple orchards of Herefordshire

THE BIG RIDE

Jim Perrin sings the praises of Cheshire’s famous sentinel, shot through with memories of those he journeyed with, from and to

Perhaps more than any other fell in the Lake District, HELVELLYN is best known for its ridges – two of them particularly. There are a couple more that are worthy of note though, even if they aren’t really Helvellyn’s.

This trip is confusing me. One moment I feel like I’m in New Zealand, surrounded by dense tree ferns in a damp and mossy glade above a waterfall. A couple of hours later I’m bombarded by ker-chings of