Stuart maconie

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

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

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.

For those who prefer not to follow the crowd, we reveal some of the best, but relatively undiscovered places to enjoy in the country’s chicest region

THE BIG RIDE

Gin, witches, regicide, boats, nudists, an Egyptian curse, Spitfires, the invention of windsurfing and more writers and vineyards than you can shake a fishing rod at: this beloved English county has it all. Here are 13 stories you may never have heard about Hampshire