Landscapes as green and lovely as everyone says. Literary giants in Dublin; Titanic history in Belfast. A pint and good craic in a traditional pub. The lure of Celtic legends.
21.07.2023 - 08:33 / roughguides.com
The British appetite for all things eccentric — particularly anything with a competitive element — ensures that on any given weekend you can find a bunch of people who lead otherwise sensible lives in a damp field somewhere snorkelling through bog water, racing pigs or chucking around black puddings. Here are the best ones to watch — from a safe and sensible distance of course.
They breed them tough in Yorkshire. How else can you explain the idea of running for a mile with a sack of coal on your shoulders for fun? That’s the challenge that’s been laid down for the past 46 years in the World Coal Carrying Championships. Apparently the race started when two local coal merchants decided to settle a pub argument about who was fitter. It’s exhausting, sweaty and very, very hard.
Wallowing around in the mud may be their favourite pastime, but pigs can actually pick up a fair head of steam too. The nippiest porkers and their owners gather at Bath Racecourse every April where they’re put to the test to see who is the speediest piglet in the country. The pun-tastic “Ham National” involves eight pigs running around a track and jumping over some (very low) hurdles.
Cheese-rolling, an organized bout of cheese chasing down a grassy mound in Gloucestershire, is one of Britain’s best-loved oddball events. It’s certainly in the best spirit of British amateurism: anyone can enter and all they have to do is fling themselves down a precipitous hill after an eighteen-pound wheel of Double Gloucester. The first one to reach it wins – and no prizes for guessing what. The official event was cancelled in 2010, but enthusiasts ensured an unofficial one took place, and you can always take part on your iPhone – a cheese-rolling app has been developed.
The reckless, fearless and the just plain filth-loving join in this competition each year, whereby participants must navigate their way through a 60ft-long peat bog without using any kind of conventional swimming strokes. Snorkels, masks and flippers are allowed but you’re only allowed to raise your head above the gunk a maximum of four times. The perfect event for anyone who thinks that Glastonbury in the rain is just a bit too clean.
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Man has always wanted to fly, but unlike Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, the Birdmen of Bognor tend to spend most of their time flying far too close to and then very quickly downwards into the freezing sea water. Since 1971 contestants from across the world have come to the seaside resort town of Bognor to take part. The idea is to run off the end of the pier and attempt to fly as far as possible, usually in hang-gliders but often on bicycles, in Heath Robinson-esque wooden contraptions and in fancy dress. There’s a cash prize for
Landscapes as green and lovely as everyone says. Literary giants in Dublin; Titanic history in Belfast. A pint and good craic in a traditional pub. The lure of Celtic legends.
”Hong Kong is a photographer’s dream,” says Geraint Rowland. “It’s got impressive architecture and the busy streets teem with life, day and night.” The Wanderlust Travel Photo of the Year winner was blown away by the territory. As part of their dual-destination photo commission, the four winners of the UK’s biggest travel photography competition were first guided around Hong Kong and its many islands. They soon discovered there were plenty of opportunities to point their lenses, whether the neon skyscrapers, the old neighbourhoods from which the city evolved or one of the 260 outlying islands, whose slower pace of life, unusual wildlife and natural landscapes offer a contrast to that famous urban bustle.
It’s no longer something to keep hidden.
Passengers on a 12-hour British Airways flight from the Caribbean to London over the weekend were fed a single piece of KFC chicken each after a catering mishap left the plane without regular meals, the travel website One Mile At A Time reported.
There are few tourism destinations out there that have avoided the scourge of high-rise condos, Quarter Pounders, and traffic lights. And if that destination happens to be our planet at its most beautiful? Forget about it.
Beyond the areas that were devastated by the earthquake earlier this year, Turkey is very much open for business and keen that visitors keep coming. Away from the tourist hotspots of Istanbul, Antalya and the Cappadocia region, there are still vast parts of the country that remain relatively little-visited. We would like to hear your tips on a hidden Turkish gem, somewhere that is off-the-beaten-track and ideal for a holiday. If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.
For five days of the year each summer, the somewhat soulless exhibition centre in Earls Court is transformed into a giant pub (pictured above). Or at least that’s what it feels like. Gone are the trade stalls and suited delegates, replaced by an army of (mostly bearded) volunteers manning hundreds of kegs, dispensing beers few people have ever heard of to thousands of squiffy punters – a lot of whom are wearing traffic-cone hats or sombreros for no apparent reason.
Britain is a nation bursting with song. While this most musical of islands has nurtured numerous world-class singers and bands, it almost bursts with festivals and concerts all year round. Here's five favourite escapes for music fans. Add yours below.
From cricket at Lords to darts in Lakeside and boxing in London, here's ten of our favourite British sporting breaks. Share your own below.
Everybody knows the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Skye. But what about the other 6000-odd British Isles? Yes, we did say 6000. From the chunky Shetland Islands in Scotland’s far north to the sunny Isles of Scilly slung out from the coast of Cornwall, the British Isles are made up of islands of all shapes and sizes. Pick the right one and you could even have it all to yourself.
Get up close to nature with our pick of the ten best wildlife sites across the UK, and let us know your own top British wildlife experiences below.
He has met cannibals in Papua New Guinea, played with mountain gorillas in Rwanda and has several flower and animal species named after him. In a career of more than sixty years, naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough’s name is synonymous with utterly absorbing wildlife documentaries, including 1979’s Life on Earth, which became a yardstick for quality wildlife show production.