Smashing ceiling
GET the best view of the Northern Lights, gazing up from a brand new Aurora Hut in Nangu, Finland.
They have glass ceilings and are mobile so can be situated on ice or snow. This winter they will be on frozen Lake Inari in the Arctic Circle.
Book a stay from December 10 – three-night breaks cost from £1,095pp.
See theaurorazone.com. A WONDERFUL tapestry of coastal trails and country footpaths awaits anyone looking to do some serious walking this autumn. Then you can rest those tired feet by the fire at a handsome holiday cottage.
Heath and marsh Peddars Way, Norfolk
THE ROUTE: The Peddars Way and Norfolk
Coast path is a long-distance walking route, one of 15 National Trails in England and Wales.
Parts of it are former Roman road, parts are pilgrim and trade routes and the whole thing covers 129 miles of varied countryside through heaths and forests, rolling farmland, empty beaches, huge sand dunes, salt marshes and beautiful coastal villages full of character.
THE COTTAGE: Island House in Brancaster Staithe has outstanding views across the marshes and sea from nearly every window. It sits virtually on the marsh. Interiors are simple and elegant and it sleeps six, from £860 a week. See norfolkhideaways.co.uk.
Sea to sea Coast to Coast, Cumbria and Yorkshire
THE ROUTE: This 182-mile path was devised by Alfred Wainwright, famous for his walking books about the Lakes. It passes through three very different national parks – the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.
To do the whole thing would be a serious undertaking, especially in winter, and especially those parts through the Lake District. So we’re suggesting dipping into it where it quietly enters the western side of the Yorkshire Dales, through the Cumbrian village of Orton.
THE COTTAGE: Number One Front Street is on the main street of this quiet stone village, handily placed just off the M6. The cottage has all mod cons, is spotlessly clean, and the village shop is a couple of doors away. It sleeps five and costs £104 per night. See airbnb.co.uk.
Abbey national Cleveland Way, North York Moors
THE ROUTE: The Cleveland Way National Trail, which turned 50 in May, throws a lasso around the North York Moors, incorporating coastline, moorland, meadow and slopes.
It connects spectacular ruined abbeys at Rievaulx and Whitby, and there is always the option of taking a shortcut on the steam-hauled North York Moors Railway, star of Channel 5’s Yorkshire Steam Railway TV series.
THE COTTAGE: Millbrook Cottage in Robin Hood’s Bay is a 17th-century former fisherman’s cottage in the heart of the village, complete with an open fireplace. It is two minutes from the beach where the Cleveland Way leads up on to the clifftops towards Whitby, or south towards quieter spots such as Boggle Hole and Ravenscar. It sleeps four, from £439 for three nights. See gorgeouscottages.com.
Border lining
Offa’s Dyke, England and Wales
THE ROUTE: The borderlands have long been hotly contested and this 8th-century dyke – a mix of ditch and earthwork – was supposedly built to keep the Welsh in their place.
It traverses a variety of landscapes, from the bleak uplands of the Brecon Beacons to the bucolic lowlands of the upper Severn Valley.
Shadowed by the 176-mile Offa’s Dyke path, it intersects with 15-mile Kerry Ridgeway, an ancient drovers’ route from the farmlands of THE ROUTE: Yet another of our National Trails, th the Pembrokeshire coastal path links some of o our most loved, and cleanest, beaches.
It stirs in dramatic headlands such as St A Anne’s, resort towns like Tenby, and estuaries su such as at Milford Haven. Take boat trips to Ca Caldey Island, where monks live, and Skomer,
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