Winter walks aren’t always how you imagine them to be. Sometimes they’re a hundred times better – even more so if you make a weekend of it.

Swerve the big-name gardens and put these dynamic alternatives on your must-visit list this year. Chosen by our garden writer Camilla Phelps, they offer plenty of fresh inspiration to bring back to your own plot

I’m sceptical about news stories you sometimes read of big black cats roaming the countryside. I was, however, tempted to don my boots for a hike I found on the internet titled In the Footsteps of the

Christine Faughlin sings the praises of a converted chapel on the 30,000-acre Bolton Abbey estate in the Yorkshire Dales

Spanning the 1920s to 1970s, Into Abstraction: Modern British Art and the Landscape, at Firstsite in Colchester, examines the evolution of abstract art during periods of sweeping social and political

Celebrating 100 years of the BBC Shipping Forecast, Jane Russell takes us on a series of coastal cruises through the forecast sea areas, exploring some of the special places on offer in each of them