COUNTRY PUZZLES

Test your rural knowledge with our countryside crossword.

ACROSS

1 At over 200 miles, it provides Britain’s longest riverside walk (6) 4 See 25 across 9 Cock-crow... apparent in jackdaw noise! (4) 10/23dn Shropshire’s historic working farm – cotton cast off (5,5) 11 Devon river? Dash! (4) 12 A fruit of 17 down – pink and trendy (7) 13/18dn Watery finish to western end of Coast to Coast path (5,3) 14 Follows a trail by smell (6) 15 A wintry feature of water in Teifi, Ceredigion (3) 16/3dn Spectacular Dark Peak crags – each other’s different (3,7) 18 See 13 across 20 Kate Humble’s sheepdog, and a two-year old sheep (3) 21 A County Down peninsula appearing in Kinsale calendar (6) 23 Relative magnitude of a bit of a fish (5) 24 Tract of land – it’s finished by wet weather (7) 25/4ac Plant with yellow/green flowers, thriving under trees – does grow up oddly (4,6) 26 Freshwater fish that’s offensive smell, with head removed (5)

27 Writer Murdoch’s spring flower, also called flag (4)

28 Dry material used to start a fire (6)

29 Breakwater that’s a bit below the belt, we hear? (6)

DOWN

1 Wildflowers or fake boulders? (9) 2 Deer’s flesh as food (7) 3 See 16 across 5 S. Wales resort with sands used for land-speed records (7) 6 Catalogue of threatened species – left in direst confusion (3,4) 7 Fox’s burrow (5) 8 One of several helping you cross a shallow river: set GPS point NE, perhaps (8,5) 17 Wild rose – dreadfully inelegant (9) 19 Leave in the lurch (7) 20 Dramatic venue like the one on Minack headland, SW Coast Path (7) 21 Hunting dog that staggers? (7) 22 Quality of e.g. a chalk stream (7) 23 See 10 across