Hit the heights at home
Lakes and mountains are an Alpine thing, right? Wrong. Whether you seek an adrenalin rush, a wellbeing break or the chance to fill your lungs with invigorating fresh air, Britain delivers plenty of attitude with its altitude, says James Stewart
Going anywhere nice on holiday this year? No hollow laughter, please. Confusion reigns over summer breaks. As I write this Matt Hancock is going to Cornwall, Priti Patel thinks it’s “far too early” to book (she’s wrong: just use a reputable tour operator), Spain and Greece are talking about vaccine passports, Cyprus is planning to open its borders on May 1 and £1,750pp airport quarantine hotels are providing the lousiest full-board stay yet invented.
In this game of holiday roulette – equal parts strategy and chance, with a similar potential for expensive disappointments – a British break seems the sage choice. Especially for those who have missed their winter adrenalin highs on the ski slopes of Europe over the past two seasons.
Indeed, last summer that meant a stampede to the coast. The estimated 49,000 visitors a day to Cornwall was 20 per cent up on 2019 (statistics courtesy of Visit Cornwall). Such was the reduced bed capacity because of social distancing that they could’ve saved time by hanging “No vacancy” signs at county boundaries. So, a suggestion, this spring and summer: visit our lakes and mountains instead.
Before we continue let’s define terms. I’m adopting the official definition of a mountain as any summit more than 2,000ft. If your favourite upland doesn’t appear here that may be why. Also, with apologies to Scottish purists, a freshwater loch is a landlocked body of water – ergo is a lake. Don’t write wry letters. It just is.
With that sorted, the big surprise for those of us who do like to be beside the seaside is that the lakes and mountains of northern Britain – and most are in the north – possess many of the qualities we seek from foreign travel.
I’m not just talking about the obvious things like fresh air and views. Nor even the walks, pedals and paddles suitable to everyone from pre-lunch potterers to hairy-chested adventurers. No, I’m referring to more subtle distinctions. Things like proud regional cuisines or a sense of lives lived in harmony with timeless landscapes. You may scoff, but millions of foreign visitors a year came to experience exactly that before the pandemic. If we can’t see the beauty in the landscapes of Britain, that’s our fault – too many are too quick to mock at home what they’d eulogise abroad.
Yet it’s our current predicament that is most pertinent. During a time of whirlwind uncertainty, mountains and still water speak of calm, of permanence. They act – and I don’t want to come over too hippyish here – as a balm for harried lives. There’s a line from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar about “lungs [which] inflate with the onrush of scenery – air, mountains, trees”. That’s it exactly.
God knows we could do with that sense of euphoria. So perhaps skip the crowded coast this year. You may discover something more valuable inland – here are 20 of the best holidays to help whet your appetite.
See you on the trail.
TAKE THE PLUNGE Cairngorm
Lockdown has been particularly painful for British skiers. The Alps were already off limits. Then the best powder in decades covered Cairngorm. The season will have melted away by the time restrictions start to ease in Scotland on April 29, so here’s a suggestion: go canyoning in Cairngorm’s foothills instead.
No, it’s not the same. But, like skiing, you’ll rip down fast slides at speeds that are, frankly, borderline insane, and test your nerve on jumps. And like a day on the pistes, there is some stonking scenery, too. Bruar canyon is for beginners, Nathrach for adrenalin junkies. Dundonnell and Grey Mare’s, meanwhile, are epics.
Day trips cost from £65pp, thecanyoningcompany.co.uk. Stay at Grandtully Hotel (doubles B&B from £110).
GO FOR A GENTLE STROLL Peak District
It’s a mountain, but only just. Kinder Scout (2,087ft) is set to be a pilgrimage for walkers this year – our first national park, the Peak District was created 70 years ago after mass trespass on the mountain. I’m sure we’re going to argue about this, but for my money, the Peaks remains our loveliest park.
It puts me in mind of France’s Massif Central; something to do with its ancient paths and comely vales, perhaps the way villages the colour of shortbread such as Tissington fold into landscapes of quiet grandeur. Going alone? Tackle the beautiful 22-mile Edale Skyline via Kinder Scout.
HF Holidays (hfholidays.co.uk) visits Tissington on a four-night break of guided walks. Four nights full-board from £385pp.
PICTURE THIS Assynt
Let’s play “Most photogenic mountain of Europe”. The Matterhorn and Eiger, obviously. The Dolomites’ Three Peaks, too. I expect we all have our favourites in Britain but, for me, the winner is Suilven in Assynt, up in the Scottish Highlands.
Less mountain than monolith, its other-worldly sugarloaf remains a landmark for photographers, as it once was for Viking navigators; a symbol of a raw wilderness that feels almost Nordic. This makes Assynt the perfect spot for a photographic break.
The classic shot is looking along its summit – a rewarding eight-hour tramp – or from the north, reached via a soggy tramp through bog.
Camp beside the sea at Port a Bhaigh (portabhaigh.co.uk) from £10 per pitch. Maybe avoid midge season, mind.
ALL ABOARD Loch Ness
Pine forests and mountain ridges: check. Insta-gold landmarks such as nuggety Urquhart castle and pretty Lilliputian resorts for a break: check again. All the elements that make GermanAustrian-Swiss Lake Constance satisfying in a motorboat exist in Loch Ness, Britain’s second-longest lake.
What you don’t get on Lake Constance, however, is Neptune’s Staircase; eight locks within a fifth of a mile. Their navigation lends a hint of derring-do to a week’s cruise from Inverness to Laggan with Le Boat. Nae bother, novices: not only are Scottish waterways the broadest in Britain, they’re the only ones with dedicated lock staff.
Seven nights with Le Boat (leboat.com) costs from £773.
GO RAFTING Lake Bala
In whitewater destinations such as Slovenia, they pray to the weather gods for sufficient meltwater for rapids. In Lake Bala, mid-Wales, they cheat. A dam release on the Tryweryn river guarantees grade 3-4 rapids for every visitor to the National White Water Centre.
It may sound hairy-chested, but it’s great family fun: either two hours’ guided rough ’n’ tumble or a rafting safari – a bobble down the lower Tryweryn, a swirl through ancient woodland, then bara brith and a cuppa in handsome Bala town.
If that makes Lake Bala sound a throwback to traditional jolly hols, well, it is – elsewhere, there’s cycling and steam-train rides.
Rafting costs from £90pp (nationalwhitewatercentre.co.uk). Stay in Dolgellau at the Slate Shed (doubles B&B from £80; slateshed.co.uk) or opt for glamping in a yurt on the attached campsite ( from £80, graigwen.co.uk).
RACE ACROSS A RANGE Snowdonia
Fancy a walk in the Welsh mountains? No, not too far – only about 30 miles. Ascend Snowdon and traverse the Glyder range – four ice-clawed fins of rock, including Tryfan (its Cannon rock is a dead-ringer for Trolltunga in Norway’s Lofoten Islands). Oh, and then navigate the Carneddau range. During the Welsh 3000s Challenge (welsh3000s.co.uk), competitors race across 15 peaks, all over 3,000ft, in under 24 hours.
More fool them. Scenery here on the roof of Wales is magnificent. For hardy hillwalkers seeking a three-day escape, the Welsh 3000s has a brooding splendour to equal Sweden’s Kungsleden trail. But unlike that wilderness trek, there’s slow-roast lamb shank to look forward to in the pub afterwards.
A three-night walking trip with Outdoor Active Sports (outdoor activesports.co.uk) costs from £175pp, including guiding and transfers, but not accommodation. Doubles at Bryn Tyrch Inn (bryntyrchinn.co.uk) from £100.
SPOT AN OSPREY Rutland Water
Consider the statistics at Rutland Water: 1,000 acres of water and reeds, woodland and meadows; four miles of footpaths; 31 hides; 200 bird species. And while birders may rate coastal marshes of southern France in spring, do they have ospreys? They do not.
The first pairs will soon return to the lake as they have for 19 years – Waderscrape and Shallow Water hides in Lyndon Nature Reserve (lrwt.org.uk) provide grandstand views. This being 21st-century birding, Rutland’s ospreys are on Twitter: @rutlandospreys.
Go early enough and you’ll see tens of thousands of water birds before they migrate to polar regions; perhaps the smew, a dandy among ducks. France doesn’t have those, either.
Find your roost for the night at Barnsdale Lodge (doubles B&B from £85; barnsdalelodge.co.uk).
HIT THE ROAD Cambrian Mountains
You get stonking scenery and screaming descents on this cycling break. Grinds over whaleback summits feel decidedly Alpine. Unlike road-biking in southern France, however, roads in the Cambrian Mountains of Powys are empty.
Where you pedal depends on what you’re after. Easy-riders can cycle from Llandovery to Llanwrtyd Wells on Sustrans route eight then catch the Heart of Wales train back (30 miles). Yellow-jersey wannabes can tackle a diverse circuit from Machynlleth to Rhayader (75 miles) or dig deep on the Elan Loop (53 miles) via Rhayader, including a diabolical climb up the Devil’s Staircase.
The scenery is magnificent. Who knows, you may glance up and see some. All towns make excellent bases. Stay in Tregaron at Y Talbot (doubles from £90; ytalbot.com). More information: cyclinguk.org.
DRIFT DREAMILY Derwentwater
Still water, a rumble of peaks, forested banks and shingle beaches on St Herbert’s Island – frankly, who needs Lake Como when you can stand-up paddleboard on Derwentwater? Lake District Paddle Boarding will kit you out in a wetsuit to reveal why this is a cradle of British SUPing.
It promises a dreamlike drift over still water among islets, bays and wildlife. On quieter days, there’s no better natural therapy; I can’t recall the last time I felt so relaxed. It’s also more immersive than a canoe, which is half the point of a SUP. Choose a Derwent river trip instead and you’ll barely have to paddle.
Hire a SUP for three hours from £50pp (lakedistrictpaddleboarding.co.uk). Lodore Falls Hotel & Spa (lakedistricthotels.net) offers doubles from £155 including breakfast.
SCRAMBLE SOME SLOPES Glen Coe
On the mountaineering blogosphere, opinion divides about our best ridge experience. Black Cuillin on Skye, think most. Let’s just say two scary days and one night on an ice-shattered mountain is pretty niche as holidays go.
So for high Alps thrills in a day, choose Glen Coe’s Aonach Eagach. The narrowest scramble in Britain is no second best. It bags two munros and traverses the exposed pinnacles. In places, the route is more tightrope than path. Even using ropes, it twangs phobias, which is why you’re going with a mountaineering guide. But, blimey, the views! Like the high Pyrenees, an enormous spread of peaks rippling on all sides.
A day’s scramble along Aonach Eagach ridge with an expert guide costs from £95pp (scottishrockandwater. com). Rest your weary legs at Glencoe House (doubles B&B from £320, glencoe-house.com).
SET SAIL ON A MICROADVENTURE Ullswater
Ullswater is the Lake Garda of the Lake District, with its mountain scenery, terrific sailing and superb options for lunch. The Royal Yachting Association (rya.org.uk) recently launched a dinghy cruising trail there, plotting a 15-mile circuit with navigation advice, historical factlets and tips about picnic spots or ice creams. Basically, everything you need for a cracking holiday. The scenery is not too shabby, either: soft hills in the north, then, beyond the narrows, Helvellyn ridged above mountains.
Glenridding Sailing Centre (glen riddingsailingcentre.co.uk) hires boats from an area that Alfred Wainwright, who knew a thing or two about the Lakes, called “the loveliest square mile in all of Lakeland”. Another Place is the perfect place to lay your head, with (doubles B&B from £190).
SAFARI DRIVE SCOTLAND-STYLE
Alladale
The Alladale Wilderness Reserve, 40 miles north of Inverness, is as close as it gets in Britain to a safari reserve. Since he purchased the 23,000-acre highlands in 2003, conservationist Paul Lister has rewilded its landscape with the European Nature Trust. The result? A hauntingly beautiful Scottish Serengeti for native species: red deer and red squirrel, black grouse, ptarmigan and golden eagles, to name but a few. A wildcat breeding programme is also yielding results.
To stay is not just to enjoy a luxury holiday. Guided walks, safari drives, flyfishing and dining like royalty; it is to see a Scotland of old – before trees were felled for sheep and hunting. And perhaps to see what Scotland could one day be again.
Lodges at Alladale (alladale.com) cost from £2,950 per week for two on a
full-board basis.
EMBARK ON AN EPIC ADVENTURE
Whitehaven to Tynemouth Forget Spanish sierras. For satisfying mountain bike touring, try a new coast-to-coast by Saddle Skedaddle.
Like Andalucia, you’re in for sizzling single-track riding in mountain scenery; about 40 miles a day through the Lake District, the Pennines and Northumberland, ripping down fast-flowing classics such as Crummock Water and Catbells, tackling new technical routes including an off-road grinder over Hartside Pass.
Unlike Spain, sunburn is less likely. And, by heck, Allendale pale ale tastes
better than chilled Cruzcampo after a long day in the saddle. Don’t forget: you haven’t “done” it unless you have dipped your wheels in both the Irish and North seas.
A five-night trip with Saddle Skedaddle (skedaddle.com) costs from £895pp.