The wilderness next door

It’s the busiest time of year for Britain’s beautiful places. Yet as these locations prove, you can find silence, sensational scenery and space to breathe.

Documentary photographer Richard Cross rises above the shortbread tin romanticism that colours so much of our outdoor heritage, with the perspective provided by drone photography applied to land use issues of our day

From dilapidated cottages to the site of a notorious nuclear disaster, what is behind the longing to seek out abandoned places, asks Katie Scott

The Victorians confused these Shropshire hills with the Alps. How? Why? Trail dons its lederhosen, downs a glühwein and reaches for the Stretton Skyline to find out.

Twenty-five years ago, the government decided to open up three million acres of England and Wales to the public – a decision that has transformed our walking landscape.

Our walks this month Ian Battersby 1 ...