The nation’s great spots

called it “the most successful act of direct action in British history.”

The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act passed in 1949.

Two years later, Britain’s first national park, the Peak District, was created. The most recent was the South Downs, which became a national park in 2010.

The parks not only make a significant contribution to the economy, by attracting 100 million visitors annually, they have also inspired countless authors, artists and poets.

The most popular is the Lake District with 15.8 million visitors a year, followed by the Yorkshire Dales.

As long ago as 1810, poet William Wordsworth urged that the patch of (then) Cumberland and Westmoreland in the Lakes should become “national property, in which every man has a right.” Andrew Hall, from the Campaign for National Parks, said: “The parks are the jewels of the country, enriching our lives with beauty, culture, peace and nature.”

Here we round up other spectacular entries in the UK National Parks photography competition... Thomas Bown’s spectacular sea view was taken on Pembrokeshire’s coast

Steve Burnett’s shot of an owl in Pembroke Ullswater, Cumbria Dartmoor, Exmoor, The New Forest, The North York Moors, The Peak District, Loch Lomond & Trossachs, Pembrokeshire Coast, Sheep in the winter sun grazing on the slopes of Exmoor was taken by Shaun Davey

WHITE HORSES HILLS ARE ALIVE HAVING A HOOT LAKES The Broads, The Lake District, Northumberland, The South Downs, Yorkshire Dales, SCOTLAND Cairngorms, WALES Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia,