The Coastline - Cliffs and Beaches on this Island and other United Kingdom Off The Beaten Path Tips

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Britain Is An Island, Remember!

Such a beautiful coastline too. So diverse and ever changing but often unspoilt and retaining charm lost inland.

From little fishing ports, smugglers coves and estuaries of silt, to the white cliffs of Dover, via sandy beaches, rocky headlands and lighthouses. This is Britain.

Imagine being a Roman, a Viking, or a Bronze-Age Trader ... this is how you first saw the island of Britain! From the sea!

The British Empire (sorry) was founded upon a military navy ... Britain is patriotic beyond belief about "ruling the waves" ... and from Victorian times to the present day, the British love to visit the sea side.

It may now be tacky novelties and candy floss, bingo arcades and concrete flood walls but even the "seaside resorts" hold a charm.

To get to know Britain / United Kingdom, you have to explore the coastline and understand how this "living on an island" effects are psychy, today.

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Website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/coastline/
Other Contact: http://www.goodbeachguide.co.uk/

Now that arrival in the UK is easy by plane, that sense of visiting an island is largely lost.

There is the Chunnel too, sneaking you into the country without a hint of water (Channel Tunnel from France). Even the ferries are floating casinos, distracting you from the coastline.

So, in search of the "island life" we head to smaller islands around the UK ... Orkney Islands (70 of them), Isle of Skye, Isle of Wight, Man, Mull ... the list goes on.

Here life is a little slower, friendlier, more "traditional". Here we feel "at home" - both relaxed and enchanted.

So, to discover far more about life in Britain and Ireland, the celtic, viking and fishing past ... visit the little islands of the British Isles. This picture is taken on Skye, but is typical and could be many other places too.

Step off the beaten path and you are rewarded by a feeling inside far stronger far more durable than any picture memory. This is life!

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Website: http://www.goodbeachguide.co.uk/Info/links.htm
Other Contact: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/

North of London you get to the Fenlands ... from Cambridge up to Kings Lynn and Lincoln / Boston.

This is flat land ... farm land ... drained and often below sea level.

The countryside is characterised by dark, rich soils (sadly not as dark as in my youth), drainage dtches (dykes) and fields of crops, vegetables and flowers.

Old "windmills" litter the landscape - these were wind pumps to drain the land and keep sea water at bay, as well as grain mills to process the rich wheat grown.

The land is also planted with sugar beat, leading to some nasty smells from Sugar processing factories, and potoatoes. Flowers and market gardens also are popular ... good area to buy fresh produce.

As well as Cambridge, check out Ely*(Cathedral) and Thetford (home of flint knapping and Queen Boudica). Lots of interesting places to see in Norfolk and Suffolk, like Grimes Graves* (neoloithic flint mines) and West Stow (Anglo Saxon village).

The landscape has a strong resemblance to the American mid west, and this is enhanced by a strong US presence (largely due to the airfields - since the second world war) and the fairly isolated / rural lifestyle of folk here.

Further East you have Norwich and the Norfolk Broads (beautiful) and the coastline around Hunstanton is sandy and unspoilt (the Queen has Sandringham Palace here).

All in all, a forgotten area of England well worth getting to know.

Grimes Graves are over 4000 years old, pre-dating metal. Neolithic people mined the valuable flint from cramped underground tunnels using antler picks. Excavated flints were knapped to produce highly important cutting tools, before metal was introduced. Open to the public. NW of Thetford on the A134 to Downham Market. See weblink.

Ely Means Eel Island - showing how the area was once wild fen marshland - hard to capture by invading tribes. Eels would have been part of the local diet. Ely Cathedral is impressive -one of the Middle Ages greatest engineering feats.

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Website: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/default.asp?wci=mainframe&URL1=default.asp%3FWCI%3DNode%26WCE%3D811%26document_from%3Dhttp%253A//www.english-herita

All over the UK are these amazingly beautiful but very modest churches. Every village has at least one.

Not only are they interesting architecturally, being old stone buildings - but they are wrapped in mystery and the history of Britain, as the country see-sawed between catholic and protestant faiths.

Some even have incredible carved gargoyles depicting Pagan imagery - quite incongruous to modern christian worshippers but fascinating ... recording the shift from a pagan to a christian religion in the 5th and 6th centuries AD.

It is amazingly enriching to find and walk amongst these old churches ... often the doors are open ... pay your respects and get a feel for the country.

The grounds are also rich in stories of life and death ... these were the very centres of community life.

This church has a Yew Tree in its churchyard, like so many, but this one is the oldest living thing in Europe!!!

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