COUNTRYSIDE CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Stable hands – newly-weds? (6) 5 E.g. cypress trees... unusual fir cones (8)

9 Pennine breed of black-faced sheep... in fell on Keighley (4) 10 Weasel relative with black-tipped tail (5)

11 Flower that might be associated with tiger or leopard! (4)

12 Dorset naturist beach near Old Harry Rocks (8)

14 A term for chickens bred for eggs, not meat (6)

15 Largest of UK crow family (5) 16 Feed containers that go to horses’ heads! (8)

18 They spoil the landscape, in your view? (8)

21 ___ Spit, Hants. shingle bank – appears in Arthur’s Tale (5) 22 Edible mushroom – wilt be different! (6)

24 RSPB Nature Reserve in Forest of Dean... aged Nash redesigned (8)

26 Grain store... in SSSI location (4)

27 Sheep breed named after a Welsh peninsula – in valley, now (5) 28 Unopened flowers (4)

29 South Devon Blue Flag beach ... needs honeymakers and sun initially (8)

30 It’s distributed by a muckspreader (6)

DOWN

2 Bats’ hibernation place... between Truro – Ostend (5)

3 Tree of genus Quercus... Sherwood Forest has a Major one (3)

4 An alliance for better food and farming – USA isn’t affected (7)

5 Derbyshire village, Pennine Way’s first staging point – throng East, North (7)

6 Hairy stingers, but not bees! (7) 7 Silly thing – such as Surrey’s Leith Hill Tower (5)

8 Prehistoric stones in Oxfordshire... go round and round, correct? (9)

13 Pigeons, could be ‘collared’, ‘rock’, or ‘turtle’ (5)

15 Way leading from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace – or alley I’m rambling (5, 4)

17 Resort on Ceredigion Coast path... in AONB or thereabouts (5) 19 Island off Antrim’s coast – ramblers, initially, halt in confusion (7)

20 Insectivorous bog-plants – NSW used to move (7)

21/23 RSPB reserve in Severn Vale... and gosh, how I’m excited! (7, 5)

25 UK’s only venomous snake (5) 28 Gaelic mountain peak – big landmark in London! (3)