Travelling Tips for UK (Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, ...)

[Rollinhofuji]

Hello fellow LF shooters,

me and my girlfriedn are about to plan a two-week trip to UK (will start in August/September). Of course I want to bring my 5x4 along :-) We will travel by car.
Since I adore so many great English (or Scottish or Welsh) landscape photographers, I would like to visit some of those famous spots and shoot some sheets (I know, might be a bad idea with my girlfriend accompanying me ;-)).

I only have some ideas in mind, like Cornwall, the Scottish and Welsh Highland, Lake District. But I have never been to the UK yet, so I would be very grateful for any hints and tips from the local LF photographers:
Where would you go, if you only had two weeks to spend in the UK?

Looking forward to your replies,
Jan

[brucep]

Cornwall would be great if you really like spectacular sea scapes, but it is quite a long drive from there to somewhere else like the Lake District, and glencoe in Scotland would be another 5 - 6 hours further north and you would probably get eaten alive by midges. I prefer Scotland in Winter.

Can I suggest concentrating on a strip across the centre of the country which would give you some very different terrains.

On the West coast the lake District is excellent and will easily keep you occupied however long you stay there, but you could then move East into the Yorkshire dales which is Limestone country, dry stone walls, old barns, waterfalls etc and is only 2 hours drive away. From here you could meander through the more northern dales into the old lead mining areas of Swaledale and surrounding areas before heading to the East coast for the numerous castles of Northumberland (google bamburgh and dunstanbugh castle, but there are many more up and down the coast) and mile after mile of almost deserted sands with quaint little fishing harbours. After that I would head south for 3 hours and pick up the old smuggling villages and towns of North Yorshire ( Robin Hoods Bay, Sleights etc) before heading back via the old walled City of York with its Minster and the famous Shambles (medieval street) before hiting the main road south back to your Ferry / Eurotunnel.

If you want any further info on any of these ideas just ask.

Regards
Bruce

[Rollinhofuji]

Bruce, that sounds great!!! Exactly what I was looking for... I already had some concerns about the distances from Cornwall to the North, sicne I'd prefer to travel not on the Motorway (but rather on smaller roads, since you get to see more of the country).
This helps me a lot. Thanks!

Regards,
Jan

[Tobias Key]

+1 for the Lake district.

Straightforward to get to, stunning scenery.

[Rollinhofuji]

Thanks Tobias - "Lake District" has been a name without meaning to me for a long time. Heard about it in the 6th grade or so (English class)...always pronounced it Lake DISTRICT. I thought that was the name of that lake.
Much later I found out what it really means and was blown away by some photos of this area. Since then, I always wanted to get there.

[AlfaKen]

I echo those locations and would add Derbyshire, a really diverse area depending on whether you want vistas or intricate valleys and woods and not great distances between.

And the Trossachs in Scotland - really easy to access.
The only other advice would be about the weather - be prepared! It's impossible to predict so plenty of waterproofing!

[Rollinhofuji]

Thank you, AlfaKen. I think we will be able to visit about 5 locations, otherwise the time for each one might be too short. So we will have to choose amongst all your suggestions :-) Perhaps we have to go up to three weeks...

[Nguss]

I would also consider Northumberland, some great locations including Dunstanburgh and Bamburgh Castle, Holy Island, Hadrian's Wall which includes Sycamore Gap but probably about 3 hours drive form the lake district.

[Steven Tribe]

The period you are looking at is the peak domestic holiday period, which will mean congestion on main roads to anywhere with family friendly beaches! Some Devon/Cornwall and North and South Welsh areas suffer a lot!

The suggestion about the NE coast and inland towns industry - even the industrial 19th Century urban slums of the Tyneside towns sounds like a very good idea to me - where you can have different "day plans" depended on what the weather gods have to offer. I am NOT from around the this area. The local accents will take a bit of getting used to!

[John Kasaian]

Don't eat the blood sausage.