Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places: 500 Ways to Discover the Wild

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Editorial reviews

Robert Macfarlane, Sunday Times Book Review
'The book is a success of organisation...an exemplary piece of book craft... The best guidebooks...inspire adventure, improvisation and the learning that comes from discovery. Somerville's book is in that valuable tradition.'

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Sunday Telegraph
`Christopher Somerville's magnificent gazetteer to Britain and Ireland's wild places could not be more timely'

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Western Daily Press (West Country Life)
`Britain and Ireland's best Wild Places is a beautifully presented volume...deftly and lyrically described in a way that is sure to lure the romantic wanderer'

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Colin Tudge, Financial Times
At once informative and poetic ... those [places] I know of are gems. ... I've got a lot of books on wildlife and this is already among the select.

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Walk
'Packed with unknown, exotic sounding locations, this truly is a book to rouse the explorative spirit within'

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Synopsis
Christopher Somerville takes us a journey of discovery through Britain and Ireland, spanning their length and breadth as he seeks out 500 of his favourite Wild Places in fields and green lanes, in forests and mountains and on lonely coasts, in all of nature's moods and every kind of weather. "Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places" is the key to discovering Scottish mountainsides covered in rare Ice Age flowers, Cornish standing stones and holy wells, Midlands wildflower meadows, storm-battered Welsh headlands and seabird islands, hill ranges and boglands in Ireland where only hares and skylarks go. But this adventurous book roams far beyond conventional landscapes. Among its wild treasures are medieval Green Men spewing mouthfuls of leaves, the ruins of haunted chapels deep in forgotten woods, old mines and quarries being recaptured by nature, villages where pagan rituals are still enthusiastically observed, rusting sea-forts tottering on sandbanks.Each Wild Place is enhanced with mapping and travel instructions, suggestions about walks and other useful information. Britain and Ireland are crammed full of wild places, often astonishingly close to home.

Here is one man's poetical yet practical account of the state of the Wild in Britain and Ireland, how it is being both threatened and nurtured, and how - whether you are heading out for a Sunday stroll or planning your next holiday - you can go out and discover it in all its extraordinary vigour and variety.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-12 rating:
Wild about the places
A culmination of many years of travelling the country, this is a fantastic collection of nooks, crannies and odd corners that have largely gone overlooked by the rest of us as we rush about our daily lives. A visit to any of these places would be time very well spent, but just curling up in a corner with it is a fine form of escape too if circumstances don't allow you to get away.

A perfect partner to 'Places to Hide' by Dixe Wills which similarly takes readers to the most unlikely of places and makes them laugh at the same time, which is quite a feat.

Anyway, I've no hesitation in awarding Somerville five stars for a great idea well executed.

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review by: izumi date: 2008-07-25 rating:
How to take a walk on the wild side
As soon as I saw this book, I knew that it would appeal to me. At present there are a great number of similarly themed books, all encouraging the reader to relinquish their place from the sofa and instead to get out into the countryside and experience the places within the pages for themselves. BRITAIN AND IRELAND'S BEST WILD PLACES is perhaps one of the best ways of beginning to do exactly that.

The book is organised into regions, beginning with The West Country, moving upwards throughout Britain before fianlly moving across to Ireland.
Each wild place has details of mapping and travel instructions, plus other useful information. For example, in the Republic of Ireland Somerville details the Nephin Beg mountains. Stating that the walk is a long one - 23 miles - he advises that you should not consider doing the walk solo unless very well experienced. And of course, that you should have all of the proper equipment if you do go on it. At the beginning of each section there is also a lovely old style map of the area, illustrating at a glance where each place is located.
For me, the success and delight of this book is the lay-out. You could easily give it as a gift to someone. Many of the wild places have an accompanying colour picture to tempt you, showing just enough of their allure to wet your appetite. But it is also the way that Somerville writes about the places which captures your imagination. The entry for Woodchester Mansion, for example, brilliantly manages to create the sense of the gothic that Somerville describes. Likewise, his entry for the "Bronte moors" shows how such a desolate and wild place could help to mold the literary imaginations of three young women.
This book is an absolute delight. I am so glad I purchased it. Not only because I love walking and the countryside, but also because I love things which can play on my mind and maybe even ignite a creative flame within. This is a book I shall continually dip into whether at home or going away on holiday - as a way to find those unknown places, this is a must.

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review by: date: 2008-07-20 rating:
a great travelling companion
A lovely book - you feel compelled to read about places you have been to and driven to explore pastures new. A book to refer to on any trip to unfamiliar territory and a fabulous gift for anyone who likes to walk.

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review by: Smilla date: 2008-07-19 rating:
Best Wild Places- a splendid encyclopaedia of inspirational walks
This is a beautifully produced book which is not only clear and well- structured but informative and inspirational. You start by reading about places you have already visited and soon discover places you need to visit. The photography is real and the descriptions tempting. It is a perfect book to dip in and out of and suits experienced and novice walkers alike.


review by: date: 2008-07-05 rating:
Beautifully produced and written - a completely new take on our most secret and eccentric places
If you love a wild or strange place then you should know about Christopher Somerville's new labour of love: a lyrical gazetteer to over 500 hidden and forgotten corners of the British Isles, each one a desolate, magical or inspirational place.

Christopher is one of Britain's most prolific travel writers. This guide and travelogue represents a synthesis of his life's adventures and treasured finds, whether the pagan May day eve chorus of Obby Osses in Padstow, the lost jungled underworld of the coastal undercliff in Dorset or the magical waterfall plunge pool of Cautley Spout in the Yorkshire Dales. Each is written with passion, history and anecdote and supported with grid references and directions.

There are also moody satin photos, wonderful line art icons (to help identify e.g. a water place, a myth, an urban setting etc) and 13 very detailed old world maps of our British and Irish regions.

A charming, poetic yet practical reference for any dreamer, tramper or naturalist.

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