Apr 132020
 
Hoy - Orkney’s High Island

My guide to Orkney is available to buy from www.bradtguides.com/orkney and all good bookshops Hoy is the first Orkney island many visitors see as they sail from the UK mainland and it’s the wildest and most rugged of them all, […]

  •  13 April 2020
Jan 152020
 
Winter’s Journey: the Isle of Wight

Mid January and daylight is returning. On the Isle of Wight this light seems to begin earlier and end later than anywhere else in the UK. Even in deepest winter it never seems to go really away. And the nautical […]

  •  15 January 2020
Dec 012019
 
Fàilte (that’s ‘hello there’ in Gaelic)

The gestation period of a rhino is around 16 months, which happens to be the same time it took for my first guidebook, Outer Hebrides, The Western Isles from Lewis to Barra, to be ‘born’. I was given the green light […]

  •  1 December 2019
Apr 262018
 

It had turned into a thoroughly enjoyable day in the Shropshire Hills. When our party – four parents, four children – had set off from the Bog car park up the western flank of the Stiperstones a low mist threatened […]

  •  26 April 2018
Mar 162017
 
Family travel: Outer Hebrides

Step aboard the Highland Chieftain from Edinburgh, then ride the ferry far out to the Outer Hebrides, a string of islands home to dunes, birds and solitude. We’re on the northernmost tip of the island of Lewis, which in turn […]

  •  16 March 2017
Mar 162017
 
Fish fancy, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

This far-flung chain of islands will richly reward your effort to reach them, not least with some wonderful food. There are few better places on the planet to eat fish and chips than on South Uist, sat by still, peaty […]

  •  16 March 2017
Mar 162017
 
Bare cheek?

It had turned into a thoroughly enjoyable day in the Shropshire Hills. When our party – four parents, four children – had set off from the Bog car park up the western flank of the Stiperstones a low mist threatened […]

  •  16 March 2017
Feb 082014
 
The etiquette of hello

Why do we say hello to people we meet in the countryside, but not in the towns and cities where most of us live? In our everyday lives, travelling to and from work, squeezed into trains and buses, we never […]

  •  8 February 2014
Jan 292014
 
Going underground

Following the Norwegian government’s decision to pull the plug on the only full-scale carbon capture and storage trial in Europe, questions are being asked about the technology’s future. Mark Rowe reports. The debate over just where we’ll get our energy […]

  •  29 January 2014
Jan 102013
 
Walk of the month: A wild wander in the West Country

The wind may be whipping up a storm, but Mark Rowe is invigorated by the raw beauty of the North Devon coast. The shipping forecast is not exactly uplifting as I park in the village of Mortehoe in North Devon. […]

  •  10 January 2013
Jan 102013
 
Great autumn walks: Kinder Scout, Peak District

In my series of walks on great autumn walks on National Trust properties I explored the moorland landscape of Kinder Scout in Derbyshire…. Kinder Scout has long been a daunting place for walkers. There’s no easy way to scale the […]

  •  10 January 2013
May 012012
 
A foot in two nations along the Tweed

Criss-cross between England and Scotland on this scenic Northumberland walk, says Mark Rowe. An innocuous grassy lane, no more than three metres wide, makes for one of the world’s sleepiest borders. You’ll find it, overlooked by hazel trees and set […]

  •  1 May 2012
Jan 262012
 
Stay The Night: Ibsens Hotel, Copenhagen

Denmark’s capital has another sleek, chic place to sleep. This new venue has big ideas, even if some rooms are tiny. First impressions of Ibsens Hotel were mixed. After a long train journey, we arrived expecting to find a newly […]

  •  26 January 2012
Jan 062012
 
Nazca Lines threatened by tourism

The Nazca lines, among the world’s most iconic and enigmatic attractions, risk being overwhelmed by tourism, according to global heritage experts. Each year, tens of thousands of tourists visit the lines in southern Peru, which were drawn between 500BC and […]

  •  6 January 2012
Dec 232011
 
Super Challenge walks in Wales

We currently have three Super Challenge walks in Wales. Mark Rowe, a seasoned travel journalist, tackled the Super Challenge walks and describes them for you. The Gower Penninsula walk saw him walk 39 miles from Crofty on the North coast […]

  •  23 December 2011
Dec 232011
 
Two-day National Parks walks

As part of its walking festival, the National Trust is launching a suite of two-day walks in National Parks, in countryside cared for by the National Trust. The National Trust chose five National Parks to explore on foot: Exmoor, the […]

  •  23 December 2011
Dec 222011
 
Brace yourself for a spot of fossil hunting

Walk Of The Month: Isle of Wight – Where else can you stumble upon a 65 million-year-old oyster? Mark Rowe takes a step back on the Isle of Wight. As any budding palaeontologist knows, a bucket and spade are handy […]

  •  22 December 2011