This Dotterel on the Cairngorms ran up to us and allowed itself to be stroked! Photo: Dick Maxfield
Created in the 1970s and tried, tested and honed every year since, this unusual and highly regarded ornitho-historical tour of Great Britain has become a popular WINGS tradition. Primarily a birdwatching trip, the full and varied yet comfortable schedule is perfect for the non-birder and also encompasses almost everything one has ever dreamed of about Britain: historic castles, fine country houses, Highland bagpipes, Tudor minstrels, Roman baths, Stonehenge, country pubs and cricket on the village green, wild moors, thatched cottages, Scottish mountains, the peace of the Outer Hebrides, glorious cathedrals, the living history of such ancient cities as York and Chester, a Shakespeare play at Stratford-on-Avon and the charm of out-of-the-way villages in the Cotswolds and the New Forest. As for the birds, around 275 species have been seen on these trips over the years — though it is unusual to see more than 200 in any one year. The selection however is the envy of British birdwatchers: Stone-curlew and Woodlark in the East Anglian Brecklands; Bittern, Bearded Tit and a wide array of shorebirds in the coastal marshes and reedbeds; alcids and other seabirds among the Farne Islands; and Black Grouse, Dotterel, Crested Tit and the endemic Scottish Crossbill in Speyside. In addition there are Corncrake on the Uists; Red Kite, Chough and Pied Flycatcher in Wales; Hobby, Firecrest and Dartford Warbler in the New Forest; and everywhere a wide variety of the commoner birds such as Great Crested Grebe, Kestrel, Cuckoo, House Martin, Song Thrush, Greenfinch and Jackdaw. Rarities over the years have included Steller’s Eider, Parrot Crossbill, Snowy Owl, Temminck’s Stint and Broad-billed and Terek Sandpipers from Fenno-Scandia and the North; Scops Owl, Tawny Pipit, Marmora’s Warbler, Woodchat Shrike, Serin, Whiskered Tern and Collared Pratincole from the Mediterranean; and even Pied-billed Grebe and Black and Ring-necked Ducks from North America. In short, the best of Britain and British birds and maybe a bit more.
Day 1: Around 9 a.m. we shall leave Heathrow Airport for our first taste of Brisitsh history and natural history. June is an exciting time for birding in Britain. The weather is usually settled and warm. The countryside looks fresh and green and all the breeding birds should be on territory and in full song. Even the most common wayside birds will hold interest for us as we drive past blithe-spirit Skylarks hovering in East Anglia’s wide blue skies or parliaments of Rooks black-flecking the fields, Lapwings lurching dramatically over their territories, or Coots and Tufted Ducks on the roadside lagoons.
On leaving the environs of the world’s busiest airport we may stop briefly at nearby Runnymede, the broad meadow alongside the River Thames where King John sealed the preliminary draft of the Magna Carta in 1215 and where the John F. Kennedy memorial stands on an arc of ground given to the United States. This is a good site for the naturalized Ring-necked Parakeet which now breeds there, and for another category C species, the Mandarin Duck (a spectacular introduction from China, now naturalized and firmly established on the British list: indeed there are now more Mandarins breeding in Surrey than in the whole of Canton Province, its original home). Or we may head directly for the 5000-acre Windsor Great Park for a real chance to walk away the jet lag and the dust of London. Birds abound in Windsor’s beautiful royal estate and if the weather is suitable we could picnic with the Chaffinches, Dunnocks, Pied Wagtails, Jackdaws and tits. The woods should hold woodpeckers, nuthatches and warblers, and the lake could give us our first Great Crested Grebe. We may also have time to pause in Windsor Town for toilets and a glimpse of the chief royal residence, originally built by William the Conqueror, though greatly altered over the centuries. We shall then head directly for Cambridge — a two-hour journey through Dick Francis country, which will afford a pleasant introduction to rural England.
Cambridge was settled by the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes and the Normans. But its main claim to fame is as one of the great universities of the world: the alma mater of Milton, Byron, Newton, Darwin, Waugh and Keyes. It was here that the electron was discovered, the atom split and the mystery of DNA unraveled. The first record of an intellectual community was in 1209 when scholars fled Oxford after townspeople hanged three students found in the house of a murderer. By the mid-thirteenth century it was known as a university. The oldest surviving college building is the hall of Peterhouse College, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, but eleven other colleges were founded during the 14th and 15th centuries and a stroll around the central area of the university offers fascinating glimpses of various medieval architectural styles. In most cases, glimpses will be all that we can hope for, as early May to early June is the time when access is most restricted as the students study for their all-important examinations. But even the exteriors and imposing gateways make a tour worthwhile and an alternative to lingering in Windsor is to reach Cambridge in time for Evensong in the magnificent Kings College Chapel, founded by Henry VI and built over the reign of three kings. The carved fan-vaulted ceiling is said to be the finest in the world. The world-famous Christmas Eve carol service is broadcast from here.
Our hotel for this first night in Britain is the Arundel House Hotel, an elegant Victorian terrace house beautifully located overlooking the river Cam and open parkland close to the city center and university colleges, with a reputation for some of the best food in the area and offering all the facilities and comforts you would expect in a first-class hotel: the perfect place to recover from jet-lag and prepare ourselves for the delights to follow.
Day 2: One of the rarest breeding birds in Britain — the tautologically-named Golden Oriole (but understandably so with its golden plumage and golden whistle) — nests nearby in Fenland but is most active soon after dawn. We shall therefore take a very early breakfast (the only compulsory one of the trip) to give ourselves a chance of this and other local specialties, such as Garganey and Hobby. Just 15 miles north is Ely (eel island) and the cathedral of the Fens, one of the most important buildings in western Europe. The present structure was begun in 1083 on the site of a 7th-century Benedictine Abbey. But its dominating glory is its remarkable 217 ft octagonal lantern designed in 1322 by Alan de Walsingham — one of the finest engineering feats of the Middle Ages and still a marvel today. The beautiful Lady Chapel, built in the 1350s, is also justly famous. Nearby is the old vicarage, the home of Oliver Cromwell and his family for ten years. Hereward the Wake held out against the Normans until 1071 on this island but the island disappeared when the Fens were drained in the 17th century. Even so, the low-lying ground still provides watery homes for many breeding birds and specialties such as Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff and Yellow Wagtail can be viewed within sight of the cathedral. The atmosphere of the unique area is admirably captured by Dorothy Sayers in her classic detective story The Nine Tailors.
Nearby Breckland (broken land), an area of sandy warrens, heaths and extensive woodland, was the first home of prehistoric man in Britain. Now it is the last stronghold of the rare Stone Curlew, the most primitive-looking of British birds. Other attractions of the area include Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Redstart and Green Woodpecker. We shall search for these before we start our 40-mile journey to Cley, the birdwatchers’ Mecca.
At Cley this year we shall stay in a real home — Bryan’s own birdwatching center overlooking the marshes, a medieval merchant’s house with a Georgian extension and an extensive library where you have access to his ornithological and historical literature and large-screen video facilities. Opposite is the home of birdwatching, the George and Dragon Hotel. Cley is not on the usual tourist circuit (and is therefore one of the few places on our tour where full private facilities are not usual — though Flanders has showers in every bedroom). Yet the advantage of being on-the-spot in Britain’s very best birding location cannot be over-estimated. The village is also one of the most attractive and historic imaginable.
Day 3: Cley-next-the-sea was once the second most important port on the east coast of England. But its glory has been diminishing since the 13th century, its estuary is now silted up, and today it is a mile from the sea — a quaint village with a unique character and a delightful away-from-it-all atmosphere. Its magnificent church and many centuries-old merchants houses bear witness to its former glory. The Flemish gable-ends reflect the Dutch-style domestic architecture of the early 17th century when engineers from the Low Countries settled there whilst they drained the marshes and built the retaining banks. The sea has now reclaimed the saltmarsh and these banks now act as convenient vantage points for an endless succession of birdwatchers.
“The East Bank at Cley,” wrote John Gooders in Where to Watch Birds, “is the best place in England to see passage waders — and to meet well-known birdwatchers…. There can hardly be a serious birdwatcher in the country who has not made the pilgrimage to Cley. It has been the Mecca of ornithologists for two centuries during which over 300 species have been recorded within the parish boundaries, including a most remarkable list of rarities.” It is indeed where birdwatching as we know it began and we are privileged to be able to live and/or stay there.
For instance, Bryan has seen 340 species in the Cley 10-km square since he has lived there. Over 200 have been visible from his windows, the most recent additions being Pallid Harrier and Ferruginous Duck from Eastern Europe, Black-eared Kite and Dusky Warbler from Asia, Penduline Tit from the Mediterranean and Snowy Owl from the Arctic. These extreme rarities are now long gone but there is sure to be some bonus in early June. One year our ablutions were interrupted by the arrival of a Broad-billed Sandpiper on the marsh just when we had called it a day. (The group responded to the cry of “everybody out” as though it were a fire alarm: indeed they thought it was a fire alarm.) Other East Anglian extras have included Terek Sandpiper, Temminck’s Stint, Woodchat Shrike, Tawny Pipit, Icterine and Great Reed Warblers, Scarlet Rosefinch and Purple Heron. So whatever the winds and the weather we can expect something unexpected. But even the expected is exciting. Cley has a selection of Britain’s rarest breeding birds — Avocet, Bittern, Bearded Tit — and there could be scarce passage waders still in early June: maybe an odd Ruff, Spotted Redshank or Greenshank.
For ease of viewing the Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve at Cley has a dozen hides (blinds) overlooking the various saline and freshwater lagoons and reedbeds, and we shall have access to all of these.
We could also visit the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Reserve at nearby Titchwell, where there is a possibility of Spoonbill and Marsh Harrier, and the beautiful pinewoods at Holkham, an English Nature Reserve and the setting for some of the scenes in “Shakespeare in Love.” The deer park of Holkham Hall (a classic 18th century Palladian-style mansion which has been home to seven generations of the Earls of Leicester) will also be worth a visit for a range of woodland and water birds from Nuthatch to the introduced Egyptian Goose.
Days 4-6: Staying at Cley gives us unrivaled opportunities for pre-breakfast and post-dinner options. We shall visit all the hides for (hopefully) a changing scene of shorebirds, Kelling Heath for Woodlarks and Tree Pipits, and Salthouse Heath for Nightjars, Woodcock and Nightingale. It will be difficult to tear ourselves away from the immediate environs of Cley, but if we choose to do so a variety of habitats and birdlife awaits us. One year a boat trip to Blakeney Point gave us Icterine Warbler and our first selection of breeding terns, Mediterranean Gull and Shelduck. If we have the time and the patience, a long linger at the Swanton Novers or Sennowe Park raptor watchpoint might give us views of Honey Buzzard, Buzzard or Sparrowhawk. Searching the lanes could provide Yellowhammer and Tree Sparrow. Or we could make a day trip to the famous RSPB reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk, where we might find Little Gull, Bittern and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, as well as gain insight into the successful management of a popular reserve where the interests of both the birds and the birdwatchers are taken into account. Nearly a thousand birdwatchers a day have been “processed” and the magnificent double-decker hides have housed a hundred or more at a time.
En route we could wander around historic Norwich, which has more medieval churches than any other city in Britain (over 30) and a fine Norman Cathedral with an elegant 15th-century spire soaring to 315 ft. Portions of the old city walls and towers remain but this flavor of the Middle Ages is best savored by walking through its quaint and colorful old streets, particularly the cobbled Elm Hill and fascinating Bridewell Alley. Outstanding are the checkered flint guildhall of 1407, the massive Norman Castle and the old marketplace with its kaleidoscope of colored canopies.
We could pass through the Norfolk Broads, open expanses of shallow water with navigable approach channels providing 200 miles of linked rivers, lakes, streams and human-made waterways for sailing and motor-boat cruising. This popular holiday region was created by diggings for peat and turf in the early Middle Ages and is famous in natural history circles as the first area recolonized by Bittern, Bearded Tit and Marsh Harrier at the beginning of the 20th century. During the 1980s it was also home to two of Britain’s rarest warblers (Cetti’s and Savi’s) and since 1981 at least one pair of Cranes has attempted to breed. It would also provide our best chance for Yellow Wagtail. For our history session we could visit Felbrigg Hall, a fine early Jacobean mansion set in ancient woodland, or the even more imposing Blickling Hall with its attractive Jacobean facade, cupolas, turrets, chimneys and “Flemish” gables framed between two immaculately trimmed yew hedges. Once the home of Sir John Falstaff and Anne Boleyn (who was born here and spent her childhood in an earlier house on the site) the present hall was built in 1616 by Sir Henry Hobart, James I’s Lord Chief Justice, and is now the headquarters of the Natural Trust in East Anglia — the very epitome of an English country house.
Day 7: We shall be leaving Cley all too soon. But we shall depart early to allow ourselves time in Lincoln and York. There could be occasional birding — a roadside Grey Partridge, perhaps, or an East Anglian rarity missed so far (often we target Montagu’s Harrier). But the emphasis today will be on history. Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) — originally a Roman colony for retired soldiers — was established by the Roman IXth Legion in AD 48, at the junction of Ermine Street leading to the north and Foss Way leading southwest as far as Exeter. Newport Arch, a relic of the Roman walled city, is the only surviving Roman arch to span an English street. The Jew’s House, dating from 1170, is one of the oldest houses in Britain still in use. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068. But above all the city is dominated by the triple-towered cathedral with its fine west front. Dating from the 11th to 15th centuries the cathedral rises 365 feet above the 200 ft-high limestone plateau overlooking the city, and its honey-colored stone seems to change color in varying light. Interior glories include the Dean’s Eye (a superb and rare composition of glass dated 1220) and the Angel Choir (1260), an architectural masterpiece in vaulting stone which includes 28 angels with the Virgin Mary and Christ and the celebrated Lincoln Imp.
An opportunity to appreciate fully the glory of the English cathedral choir and to worship where Christians have stood for a thousand years may be afforded at York Minster by the 4 p.m. Choral Evensong. It seems only fitting that we should use at least one of these great cathedrals for its original and greatest purpose — the worship of God. It is perhaps appropriate that it should be York Minster, which stands above the remains of the great Principia or headquarters of the Roman legionary fortress where Constantine, the first Roman emperor to befriend the Christian church, was declared Caesar by his troops in AD 306. Three hundred years later the Northumbrian King Edwin (of whom more later) accepted Christianity and was baptized in York.
The present Minster (the name for a cathedral which was a teaching center) was begun in 1220 and finished in 1482, the largest in England — indeed the largest gothic building north of the Alps. Inside, a breathtaking kaleidoscope of light bursts in through the most celebrated and largest concentration of ancient stained and painted glass in the world. Particularly fine are the 13th-century Five Sisters window, made up of geometric patterns in gray/green glass except for the one picture in stained glass (1150) from the earlier cathedral; the Great East Window (1405-08) the largest area of medieval stained glass in a single window in the world (the size of a tennis court); the Pilgrimage Windows (1312); and the Rose Window (early 16th century) commemorating the marriage of Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York after the end of the War of the Roses. Of special interest are the delightful portrayals of birds in the Zouche Chapel including a charming portrait of a 15th-century wren lunging at an unfortunate spider. Remember to wear your binoculars to appreciate the detail. York (Viking Yorvik) is second only to Norwich in the number of old churches within its limits and fine museums abound. A lofty mound carries the 13th-century Clifford’s Tower, a surviving portion of York Castle. But the city’s history is written in its streets, from the 14th-century shambles or butchers’ street (Old English shamel — slaughter house), where old timber-framed houses so lean towards one another that top floor occupants could shake hands across the street, to the Georgian grace of Micklegate and St. Saviourgate. The Roman city walls, embellished through the centuries, are intact and can be followed by a rampart walk.
We shall then head north for James Herriot Country (immortalized by the films and TV series based on his novels). Richmond town was also the location for the recent film version of Hardy’s Jude the Obscure and for “Woman of Substance” starring Kevin Costner. Its Norman castle and cobbled market-place (the largest in Britain) are magnificent, and down by the river we might see our first Dipper or Grey Wagtail. We will overnight at King’s Head Hotel, Richmond, originally built in 1718 as a private house for Sir Charles Bathurst before becoming a coaching inn where Franz Liszt once performed in the ballroom and the artist JMW Turner stayed whilst traveling in the Yorkshire Dales (and who described it as “the finest hotel in Richmondshire”). The dining room was the television location for James and Helen’s anniversary dinner in “All Creatures Great and Small.”
In the evening, we shall attend a performance of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in Britain’s oldest theater — a tiny Georgian gem — where we have managed to secure the very best seats, in the Shakespeare Box.
Day 8: Northumbria — the kingdom north of the Humber — was once the center of Britain. Today we shall realize why. But first we shall wind our way over the photogenic moorland roads which featured in the pre-credit sequences of “All Creatures Great and Small,” scanning for Curlews and Red Grouse amongst the heather. (The latter was, a hundred years ago, the only “British” bird and has now quite rightly been split again from Willow Grouse as a truly endemic species.) Then, another cathedral, but one as different from York or Lincoln as Stonehenge is from a Roman amphitheatre. Durham is Norman, massive and uncompromising on a 70-ft-high rock surrounded on three sides by the River Wear. Its round pillars have an equal height and circumference of 22 ft. “Half church of God, half fortress gainst the Scots,” as Sir Walter Scott described it. It was built as a shrine for the body of St. Cuthbert, whose tomb is still there, and was the first church to use ribbed vaulting on a large scale. In 1991 it was voted “the most magnificent building in the world” by an international panel — a foolish competition of course, but maybe no one would quibble at “one of the world’s top ten,” which is good enough. It was the location for feature films as diverse as the historical epic “Elizabeth” and the first “Harry Potter” film. We shall time our visit to include at least part of a morning service, the best way to experience a cathedral.
The early Celtic saints will be very much with us in spirit as we journey through their land to Bamburgh, now a tiny coastal village dominated by its castle but once the most important spot in England. It was from here that King Ida in AD 547 united the scattered states under one rule as Bernicia and when Edwin of Deira mounted the throne in AD 617 Bamburgh became the chief city in a kingdom extending from the Humber (south of York) to the Forth (to Edwins’ Borough, in fact — or Edinburgh, as we know it today). He succeeded in defeating the East Anglians, East Saxons and West Saxons, and the south country became subject to Northumbria. Edwin and his nephews Oswald and Oswy — brothers of the royal house of Bernicia — all had the stature of Bretwalda, “ruler of Britain.” This era is vividly documented for us in the writings of the Venerable Bede (whose tomb is also in Durham cathedral) — the only Englishman to be numbered by Dante among the worthies of his Divine Comedy and of whom the biographer of Charlemagne wrote “God — who on the fourth day of creation brought forth the sun in the east, ordained in the sixth age of mankind Bede as a new sun in the west to illuminate the whole globe” — and stories of Edwin, of Oswald, that great champion of Christianity, and of the saints Aidan and Cuthbert and of their pagan adversaries, Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon of Wales, abound. The present Bamburgh castle dates merely from Norman times but perched on its crag of Whin Sill, 80 ft thick and 150 ft high, it is the very symbol of impregnability and surrounded as it is by miles of golden sand is often chosen as a location for feature films (“Becket,” “Mary Queen of Scots,” “The Devils,” “El Cid”). The beach here — a stretch of the coastline described by Sir Walter Scott as “Northumbria’s lordly strand” — must be the most magnificent in the land.
En route we shall visit the Roman Wall, the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire, running 90 miles across the width of northern England, and built by the Emperor Hadrian (AD 122) to separate the Romans from the barbarians. The surviving portions, some nearly 14-ft high and made of great square stones, make an unforgettable impression as they undulate over the craggy spine of Britain, punctuated by the ruins of turrets, milecastles, and forts. We may walk along the most spectacular stretch and examine Housesteads Fort, substantially excavated and containing the only visible example of a Roman hospital in Britain.
And — just in case you are wondering — our bird list today could include Grey Wagtail flitting over the weir beneath Durham cathedral, Wheatear and Meadow Pipit in the vast tracts of moorland alongside Hadrian’s Wall, and Fulmars nesting on the window ledges of Bamburgh Castle itself. We may also be serenaded by the comical crooning of Eider Ducks offshore and by the insect-like reeling of Grasshopper Warbler singing an amazing 1600 double notes a minute. Our hotel at Bamburgh is the Lord Crewe Arms Hotel, with private facilities all round.
Day 9: After so many hours in the coach yesterday, we shall probably take the opportunity to walk around the rocks and beaches searching for Rock Pipit (now split from American Pipit) and shorebirds. Or, tides permitting, we may visit Holy Island, the base from which the Celtic church extended its influence far and wide. Here in AD 700 Bishop Eadfrith compiled the richly illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels, now in the British Museum. Another option could be Hauxley pools to check for waders and a possible visiting Roseate Tern from its breeding grounds on Coquet Island just offshore. The highlight of today, however, will be our afternoon boat trip to the Farne Islands, a group of 28 small islands lying from one-and-a-half to five-and-three-quarters miles offshore and the most famous seabird sanctuary in the British Isles. The peaks of hard dolomite rock have weathered above water into magnificent cliffs and spectacular sea-stacks and these are home to thousands of seabirds, many of them very tame after centuries of protection so that photographs with the simplest of cameras are a possibility. They are also the only east-coast breeding site for the world’s rarest seal — the Atlantic Grey — and these too will pose for our cameras. We shall land on the Inner Farne, the oldest bird sanctuary in the world since St. Cuthbert laid down the rules for the care of nesting Eider Ducks there in AD 676. Up to a thousand of the birds still nest here each year, often sitting only a few feet apart and so confiding that they can be stroked on-the-nest, plus Kittiwakes, Shags, Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins (50,000 of them) and thousands of terns — Arctic, Common, Sandwich and, with luck, the rare Roseate. Spending an hour or so on Inner Farne, the birds leave you in no doubt that this is their world (protective headwear is advisable). It is an experience you will never forget.
Day 10: Today we shall follow the coastline into Scotland via the romantic ruin of 14th-century Tantallon castle, described in Scott’s Marmion, perched on sheer 100-ft cliffs looking out to the 350-ft-high Bass Rock where thousands of nesting gannets give the island a snow-capped appearance. We shall probably picnic on the shores of Aberlady Bay or around Gullane Point (keeping an eye out for Velvet Scoter, Red-necked Grebe or Bar-tailed Godwit) before pressing on to Edinburgh, the “Athens of the North.” This title was bestowed because Scotland’s capital, unlike most of Britain’s ancient cities which rose along river valleys, was built on crags. The center is an area of broad pastures, steep cliffs, and deep canyons, their depth exaggerated by the height of the Old Town tenements whose crowstepped gables lean against the sky. For 250 years these early examples of high-rise buildings — 9, 10, and sometimes as many as 14 stories high — grew upwards within the safe confines of the Flodden Wall, built during the panic after Scotland’s defeat by the English at Flodden in 1513, making Edinburgh unique among European cities. Two hundred years ago a new town of Georgian elegance was built with a High School modeled on the Temple of Theseus and a Parthenon-style Napoleonic war memorial topping Carlton Hill. Dominating all Edinburgh is the castle, dating in part from AD 1100 but much rebuilt throughout the centuries. On our tour we shall drive along Princess Street, one of the great thoroughfares of the world, lined on the north side by shops and hotels but fringed entirely by gardens on the south, and take a stroll down the Royal Mile, the name given to the ancient street which runs eastwards from Castle Hill to Holyroodhouse.
Our journey north takes us over the Forth road bridge and through mile after mile of increasingly spectacular scenery, with maybe our first glimpses of Buzzard or Sparrowhawk, before we reach our base for the next three nights — the House of Aigas, west of Inverness. As in Cley this is another home, but a much grander one: a typical Scots-baronial-style castle rebuilt and extended many times after its destruction following the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and set in magnificent and extensive grounds. After a quarter-century based in Aviemore this was a new location for us in 2004, but our hosts Sir John and Lady Lister-Kaye together with their friendly and obliging staff proved so popular with participants that we have returned ever since. Baronet Sir John is a leading conservationist and writer and has opened his home to all those interested in wildlife. Our comfortable chalet accommodation in the woods — with full en-suite facilities and even a little kitchen — is the perfect place to opt out and relax if by this stage in the tour you would like to recharge your batteries.
Day 11: Between the valleys of the rivers Spey and Dee the granite domes of the Cairngorm mountains form the only arctic-alpine plateau in Britain with six peaks in this magnificent wilderness over 4,000 ft and at least a dozen more topping 3,000 ft. Here, if the weather is clear, we shall search for such tundra species as Ptarmigan, Dotterel and Snow Bunting, either by walking up Carn Ban Mor or the Cairngorm and Ben Macdui (4,296 ft). If low clouds and high winds confine us to lower altitudes we shall find much to delight us in the beautiful old Scots pine woods which form the ancient forest of Caledon, with its springy mattress of juniper, crowberry and heather. Specialties here include the Scottish Crossbill (Britain’s only other endemic, along with Red Grouse), Siskin, Redstart, the enchanting Crested Tit, and most spectacularly the near-turkey-sized Capercaillie. The lochs hold breeding Slavonian Grebes, Goldeneye, Red-throated and Black-throated Divers and Common Sandpipers, and at Loch Garden the RSPB runs a very successful Osprey watch where over two million visitors have viewed these popular birds of prey at their nest.
Now we are in Britain’s far north (latitude 57). The days will be long in this land of the summer dim, and although we shall probably not take advantage of a possible 20 hours of birding we shall probably spend a very full day in the field. Alternately, you may wish to relax at Aigas, spending time wandering around the grounds and the private loch or joining one of their guides to watch Ospreys or Peregrines at the nest or to visit Beauly for shopping or to see the 13th century abbey. There’ll also be a chance to have your laundry done.
Day 12: With so many species yet to be found in this exciting area we shall combine exploring a selection of mountain and forest habitats. If time permits we may visit the Findhorn Valley (“Eagle Alley”) where possibilities besides Golden Eagle, Buzzard and Merlin include Ring Ouzel (the mountain blackbird), Dipper and Red Grouse. Or we may stroll around the beautiful Loch an Eilein with its island fortress from which the Wolf of Badenoch, the notorious son of the Scottish King Robert II, maintained a reign of terror in the late 14th century — a good site for Redstart, Crested Tit and Wood Warbler. We shall also search for the increasingly rare Black Grouse. Again, taking time out to enjoy Aigas to the full is an option.
Day 13: Today we drive north to Little Loch Broom and Gruinard Island, where we have a good chance of White-tailed Eagle and Great Northern Diver, and via some of the most magnificent coastal scenery imaginable past Loch Ewe, Gair Loch, Loch Maree, Upper Loch Torridon and Loch Carron, to Uig at the northern tip of the Isle of Skye in time to catch the 6 p.m. ferry for the Outer Hebrides. We might also have time to drive up the Applecross road for a last chance of Ptarmigan. Once on the boat, however, we can relax and enjoy the succession of seabirds which will keep us company across the Minch — our first Black Guillemots and hopefully Storm Petrels, Arctic Skuas and Manx Shearwaters. We shall also eat on the boat so that immediately we arrive at our quayside hotel — the Lochmaddy (all modern conveniences and en-suite facilities) — we have the option of driving around North Uist, an island which has so many lochans, or small lakes, that it is more water than solid earth. Both Red-throated and Black-throated Divers breed here and passerines include Corn Bunting and Twite, both unprepossessing LBJs but significant in that one is the archetypal Bunting (formerly called The Bunting, the original of all the world’s buntings) and the other is the only representative of the Tibetan fauna in Britain. Arctic Skuas also breed here and can be encountered almost anywhere — on the moorland or sand-dunes or out at sea.
Day 14: It is fortunate that we have 20 hours of daylight at our disposal today. For if we choose to, there is much to see. The Outer Hebrides, or “The Long Island” as they are know locally, are a unique collection of islands stretching 130 miles from the Butt of Lewis in the north to Barra Head in the south. Rugged and mountainous along their eastern shores, a very different face is presented along their western coast where the machair — the sea meadows — meet the silver-white beaches and the Atlantic bays of Caribbean blues and greens. Mingling with the sights and scents of clover, vetches, wild pansies and a variety of wild flowers are the display flights and trilling calls of breeding Dunlin, Redshank, Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover. From clumps of wild iris and sedge comes the distinctive call (like a credit card on a comb) of the rare Corncrake.
Golden Eagles and Golden Plover haunt the hills and the heather. One or two Red-necked Phalaropes breed on the island of Benbecula (and nowhere else in Britain) and we may see a lingering “winter” visitor such as Whooper Swan, Glaucous Gull or Snowy Owl.
On South Uist we shall alternate between the rugged terrain of the east coast and the soft and serene beaches and machair of the west, delighting not only in the birds and the scenery but also in the old thatched crofts and the reminders of the islands’ heroic past. It was from here in 1746 that Bonnie Prince Charlie, dressed as Flora MacDonald’s maid, escaped in a rowing boat “over the sea to Skye,” and on South Uist is the site of Flora’s cottage. Loch Druidibeg is the only traditional breeding ground in Britain of wild Greylag Geese and other typical breeding birds are Short-eared Owl, Hen Harrier, Whimbrel and Greenshank. If the weather permits we may be able to watch White-tailed Eagles, which breed on the sea-cliffs here. And nowadays we can even drive over the new causeway onto the beautiful island of Eriskay (where Bonnie Prince Charlie first landed in Scotland) which was the real-life setting for the events immortalized in Sir Compton Mackenzie’s novel Whiskey Galore (the film version of which was shown in America as “Tight Little Island”). Night at the Lochmaddy Hotel.
Day 15: Returning to the mainland at midday on the Lochmaddy—Uig ferry gives us the chance to relax at our hotel or to explore more of North Uist and drive onto the island of Berneray — at nearly 58°N the most northerly point on our tour (north of the Pribilofs and only just south of Norway, Novgorod or Nižnij Tagil). Back on Skye we shall head for the southern tip of the island. Just beyond Knock Castle (one of many MacDonald clan strongholds, successfully defended from a 15th-century attack by Clan Macleod) our final ferry of the trip takes us from Armadale to Mallaig, a fishing village at the western end of the songwriter’s “Road to the Isles.’ We shall take this spectacular route past Loch Morar — which is the deepest lake (over 1,000 feet deep) in Britain and is said to harbor a monster (Morag) which appears whenever a death is imminent in the Clan MacDonald — and Loch nan Uamh (where Bonnie Prince Charlie arrived on the Scottish mainland on 25 July 1745 and left, never to return, on 19 September 1746).
Then comes Ben Nevis (at 4,406 feet Britain’s highest mountain) and Glencoe, one of Scotland’s wildest and most celebrated glens (also called the Glen of Weeping, for it was here in 1692 that a company of soldiers under a Campbell commander massacred early one morning more than 40 MacDonalds who had been their guests for 12 days but failed to swear allegiance to William III and foreswear the Jacobite cause).
We will arrive at the end of the day at our hotel, The Colquhoun Arms (en-suite facilities) in Luss — a model village of stone cottages and rose gardens on the shores of Loch Lomond, location for the popular TV soap, “Take the High Road.”
Day 16: Scotland’s largest loch — 23 miles long, up to five miles wide and 630 feet deep — and the peaks and forest-covered slopes of the Trossachs beyond fulfill a popular ideal of Scotland based on the poems and novels of Sir Walter Scott. A significant contributory factor is the abundance of heavily wooded islands — 38 of them.
After a short walk here (Goosander and Wood Warbler are regular) we shall either meander along the Ayrshire coast or speed on through Glasgow and the Scottish lowlands to the heart of the English Lake District. To enjoy the delights of this popular tourist area to the full we shall stay not in one of the larger tourist hotels in some inconvenient and crowded major center, but in a delightful old coaching inn (The Kings Arms) in the National Trust village of Hawkshead (from the Viking Haukr-saetr after the Norseman Hauker who first built houses there). Fans of Beatrix Potter (who lived at nearby Hill Top Farm in the early 1900s) will recognize scenes she painted in her many children’s books — such as the cute little bend-or-bump cottage opposite (once William Heelis’s office) as depicted in The Tale of the Pie and the Patty Pan and as Tabitha Twitchit’s shop. Hawkshead was also the setting for The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse. Tree-covered hills and picturesque stone cottages make this village one of the Lake District’s leading beauty spots. The village, near the head of Esthwaite Water, with Coniston Water to the west and Lake Windermere to the east, is overlooked by the Norman church of St. Michael (rebuilt about 1500) which contains the private chapel of the Sandys family. Edwin Sandys, archbishop of York, was born at Esthwaite Hall in 1516. In 1585 he founded the local grammar school where Wordsworth was a pupil. The school is now a museum and contains the desk on which Wordsworth carved his name. Ann Tyson’s cottage, where Wordsworth lodged, is just off the main street near the center of the village. His boyhood here is recalled in his great poem The Prelude. Almost every building in this charming village is a delight to the eye.
Our exploration of this beautiful area will depend on how long we lingered at Loch Lomond or along the Scottish coast. North of Hawkshead lie Rydal Water and Grasmere, considered by many to be the most attractive small lakes of the region. Here we can visit William Wordsworth’s two homes, Rydal Mount and Dove Cottage where he lived from 1799 to 1808 and where he spent the last 37 years of his life until he died here in 1850. The latter house and the 4 1/2 acres of garden which Wordsworth created remain very much as they were in the poet’s day. Wordsworth believed that a garden should be informal, that it should harmonize with the surrounding countryside and should consist of “lawn and trees carefully planted so as not to obscure the view.” The Rydal Mount garden, with its two terraces which Wordsworth designed and along which he would walk while composing his poetry, has been described as one of the most interesting small gardens to found anywhere in England. The two houses are linked by the ancient Coffin Path, which makes an enchanting walk with secret views of water glimpsed through the trees and offers the possibility of Pied Flycatcher, Redstart, Tree Pipit and Green Woodpecker. This whole region inspired a succession of Romantic Poets since Thomas Gray “discovered” it in 1769 and every Skylark, Cuckoo and Linnet could be a direct descendant of the very birds which inspired some to the most memorable nature poetry in the English language. Fellow writers, who visited Wordsworth attracted by the beauty of the hills, have included Sir Walter Scott, Charles Lamb and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. And overlooking Coniston Water (also very near Hawkshead) is Brantwood, the home of John Ruskin. Indeed, wherever we turn, we shall find much to delight us in this lovely region which has been a holiday venue for over 200 years.
Day 17: Just south of the Lake District is the RSPB reserve of Leighton Moss. Depending on our success rate ten days ago in East Anglia we may stop here for a while (our last chance for Bittern, Bearded Tit and Marsh Harrier). Or we may head south to Chester, an ancient walled city on the River Dee. The Roman Twentieth Legion established their major fortress of Deva here in AD 79 to protect the surrounding fertile land from Welsh tribesmen and sea pirates. The city’s streets follow the basic pattern laid down by the Romans and the city walls — much of them Roman — have been preserved in their entirety. But Chester’s unique possession is its galleried streets, known as the Rows, dating from the Middle Ages. Superb half-timbered Tudor houses, notably Bishop Lloyd’s house, God’s Providence House and Old Leche House have rich carvings and attractive pargetting. We then drive west along the coast of North Wales to yet another town surrounded by impressive walls, Conwy, in this case built in the 13th century by Edward I, who was also responsible for the dramatic castle with its eight great drumtowers and 21 semicircular towers at regular intervals. Equally impressive engineering feats of later centuries are Telford’s 1827 suspension bridge, Robert Stephenson’s 1822 tubular railway bridge, and the 1958 road bridge. But the latest crossing of the River Conwy is under the water. We shall stay at the Tyn Yr Hendre, Bangor (clean, comfortable and with private facilities). The Tyn Yr Hendre is a modest farmhouse and not only a comfortable base for our two nights here, it is also situated in exactly the right place for access to the Isle of Anglesey and Aber Valley, in North Wales.
Day 18: Starting at the very border of the Snowdonia National Park we shall spend the morning walking up the Aber Valley — a delightful uphill stroll where the wooded lower reaches gradually give way to open sheepwalk and rocky hillside. We can expect many avian specialties, from Dipper, Pied Flycatcher and Redstart to Ring Ouzel, Peregrine and maybe even Goshawk, as well as many species which, though common, may have eluded us so far — such as Blackcap, Garden Warbler and Goldcrest. We shall then drive to the Isle of Anglesey (“the isle of the straits” from the old Norse word ongull), from 150 BC a center of Celtic culture and religion and still remembered in Welsh history as the place where the Druids made the fiercest stand against the Roman conquerors. We shall make a short stop at Britain’s longest place-name, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiligogogoch, and maybe at little Aberffraw, a remote and peaceful coastal hamlet set amongst the sand-dunes which amazingly was from AD 870 until the 13th century the capital of North Wales. Birds could include Stonechat and Whinchat, Roseate and Arctic Terns, Cetti’s and Grasshopper Warblers and, on the steep cliffs of South Stack, Holy Island, we have our last look at a seabird city. The ornithological highlight, however, should be Red-billed Chough, “the commendable crow,” completing our set of all seven British corvids in one day. As in Cley, there could well be a bonus bird for us here too. One year the surprise was a Little Egret (a great rarity in those days), another it was Red-backed Shrike, and yet another, Black Duck.
Day 19: Today we travel through Snowdonia to the very heart of Wales. Our route will depend on the priorities on our shopping list of ornithological “musts.” If Red Grouse has so far eluded us we could take an easterly route and search for this endemic race of Willow Ptarmigan (in reality a separate species) on the moorland beside the Devil’s Elbow in the Llantysilo Mountains, keeping a lookout too for Hen Harrier, Merlin and Goosander. Alternatively, Dolgarrog offers Willow Tit, Lake Vrnwy Pied Flycatcher and Cwm Hirnant Pass Whinchat. If castles are still an attraction we could take in either Conwy, Caernarfon or Harlech, all equally impressive examples of 13th-century military architecture. But once we reach central Wales our attention will be increasingly focused on the very symbol of Welsh birdlife, the Red Kite. This beautiful and graceful raptor was close to extinction in Britain (down to a few pairs in the first half of the 20th century), but has slowly increased in numbers during the last 30 years — though the number of survivors reaching breeding age still only just exceeds adult deaths. This species must surely be on all our “most wanted” lists for as a breeding bird the Red Kite is confined largely to Europe and has been so persecuted by humans that it is an endangered species throughout its range. Once we have been successful in our quest we can take the old mountain road to Rhayader, a characterful market town where a warm welcome awaits us at the en suite Elan Hotel. On more than one occasion Tawny Owl has been our after-dinner treat here.
Day 20: A pre-breakfast riverside walk here will be our last chance for birds such as Pied Flycatcher, Wood Warbler and Dipper. It will be a good opportunity to catch up on Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Marsh Tit, Treecreeper and Grey Wagtail. But there’ll be other chances later in the morning at the Knapp and Papermill reserve near Worcester, a charming corner of Old England where time seems to have stood still and where we may see Kingfisher and Bullfinch. We shall probably picnic at Upton Warren, another reserve in the English midlands, at least adding Little Ringed Plover and the first Green Sandpiper of the autumn to our list, though one former attraction of this area, the Marsh Warbler, is precariously near extinction as a British breeding bird. Other excitements in past years have included Greenshank, Ruff, Hobby and Lesser Whitethroat.
We then head for Stratford-upon-Avon, where we shall arrive early to allow us to change and eat before attending a performance of Macbeth at the Swan Theatre in the town of Shakespeare’s birth. Productions in recent years have received rave reviews and this year’s should be a theatrical experience to remember forever.
Day 21: This morning we tour the historic properties associated with the world’s greatest dramatist and his family: Shakespeare’s birthplace, New Place where he died, Hall’s Croft (the home of his daughter Susanna who married Dr. John Hall), Mary Arden’s House (the Tudor farmstead where his mother lived), and Anne Hathaway’s cottage with its old-fashioned garden and orchard (and, on more than one occasion, Bullfinch). We may even rest on the very wooden settle on which William and Anne sat when courting. During the afternoon we shall drive through the charming Cotswold countryside with its rolling hills, honey-colored stone houses and quintessentially English place names such as Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Chipping Campden, Adlestrop, Aston Magna, and Upper and Lower Slaughter. Maybe we’ll check into our hotel in Bath, the Georgian Abbey Hotel (more luxury), in the town center in time to allow us the option of a visit to Chew Reservoir where we may see a selection of wildfowl and waders, perhaps including the delightful little Garganey or the elusive Cetti’s Warbler. Or we could enjoy this outing as a pre-breakfast option tomorrow (which would have the added advantage of coinciding with the local ringing group so that we could examine some birds in the hand). After dinner we may walk through the floodlit center of Bath, the most elegant city in England, as a foretaste to tomorrow’s sightseeing.
Day 22: Bath is the most complete and best-preserved Georgian city in England. But it is also one of Britain’s oldest cities, famous since before Roman times for its warm mineral springs. There will be the option of a Sunday service at Bath Abbey. Or we can take a tour of the Roman baths (among the best-preserved Roman remains anywhere in England) and see a Roman reservoir which still provides half-a-million gallons of water a day at a constant temperature of 49 C. Mineral water running into the Great Roman Baths still courses through a lead conduit laid down by a plumber over 2,000 years ago. Above the Roman Baths is the elegant Pump Room where in the 18th century Beau Nash presided over the elite of London society who came to the baths and to the halls and assemblies that made the city a byword for elegance and fashion and led to the city’s name becoming the adjectival element for a range of innovations from the Bath Chair to the Bath Bun. Here we too can take the water and gossip before we examine more of the Georgian splendor of Bath — Queen Square, the Circus, the Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge — or marvel at the west front of Bath Abbey (where in AD 973 Edgar was crowned first king of all Britain) depicting Bishop Oliver King’s dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder from heaven. We shall no doubt recall this when later today we marvel at the largest wall-painting of the Last Judgment still surviving, the famous Doom Painting in St. Thomas’s church, Salisbury (the very first building to be erected in the new city of Salisbury when it was moved from its Old Sarum site at the beginning of the 13th century). Today will also provide us with our last chance for cathedral viewing. Salisbury has the largest cathedral close in England, the tallest spire (404 ft) and the oldest (1386) working clock in the world. It is one of the few cathedrals where the total length of the whole building (449 ft) can be seen without interruption and is the only English medieval cathedral largely conceived and executed in a single style (Early English Gothic 1220-1280) rather than piecemeal over the centuries.
Nearby is an even older monument which took longer to build — from 3000 BC to 1400 BC — the mysterious and awesome prehistoric megalithic circles of Stonehenge. Although its origin and purpose are unknown it is thought that it may be connected with ancient sun-worship rites. Let’s hope we can continue the tradition.
With the mid-summer celebrations just completed, traditionally the sun should be shining, hopefully enhancing our views of the birds scheduled for our journey from the Salisbury Plain to the New Forest: Stonechat, Corn Bunting, Whitethroat, Little Owl and maybe even Hobby and Montagu’s Harrier, two scarce raptors which have bred in this area in recent years.
Our hotel for our final nights is the luxurious Bartley Lodge near Cadnum, a country mansion set in its own grounds. Built in 1759 for the founder of the New Forest Hounds, the grand galleried hall is paneled in fine solid oak and the crystal dining room has elegant and gracious proportions with the high ceiling adorned with decorative plasterwork. It was also the boyhood home of Sir Charles Lyell and it was here in his father’s library and the wooded grounds that he was first fired by natural history and geology into a lifelong study which led to his authoritative Principles of Geology (1830-33), which had as great a contemporary influence as Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species; it persuaded many Victorians to doubt Archbishop Ussher’s assertion that the final stages of creation and humanity occurred on 23 October 4004 B.C. This quiet and secluded hideaway surrounded by gardens and forest is the perfect place to relax and gather ourselves for our return home.
Day 23: The word “forest” now implies a densely wooded area. But originally it meant an area set aside for hunting by the king or powerful nobles. By the end of the 12th century, one-third of England had been set aside as royal forest. Of the 80 such forests maintained by the Normans, the New Forest is the largest still surviving — 145 square miles of open land and, ironically, the oldest of the great forests of England. It hasn’t been “new” for over 900 years when William the Conqueror cleared the land, destroying 22 Saxon villages in the process. His son and successor, William Rufus, was killed there in a hunting “accident.” By the 17th century the forest created because of a king’s love of sport had taken on a new importance as a source of timber for England’s growing navy. But it wasn’t until the 19th century that Parliament ended the monarch’s right to keep deer in the forest and allowed commoners’ cattle, ponies and donkeys to graze all the year. Pannage, however, is allowed only from September to November. So don’t bring your pigs. Few forests in Britain have such a variety of trees and besides the densely wooded areas there are great heaths and tiny churches seemingly lost in the depths of the wood. This is the England of your imagination, and we shall experience the enchantments as we wander through the ancient groves and search for a selection of species which might have eluded us so far, from Green Woodpecker to Marsh Tit. There are specialties too: Woodlark, Crossbill, Firecrest, Honey Buzzard, Hobby, but above all the Dartford Warbler, a rare and secretive species which in Britain is confined to the lowland heath of this small area of southern England.
On occasions we have obtained permission from Lord Montagu’s estate to picnic at Needs Ore Point overlooking the Isle of Wight. Here, and at nearby Bucklers Hard (once a busy 18th-century naval shipyard where Nelson’s Agamemnon was built), we have a last chance for terns, gulls and waders — maybe including Spotted Redshank and Black-tailed Godwit — and in recent years Little Egrets have out-numbered Grey Herons.
We shall offer various options, for all-day birding or for relaxing and packing at the Bartley Lodge, so that everyone can unwind at his or her own pace or keep going until the last trace of daylight fades on the Nightjar, Woodcock and Tawny Owls.
Day 24: The advantage of the Bartley Lodge is that, although it is lost in the depths of the forest, it is only a few miles from motorway access to London. This means we can either spend more time in the woods or depart directly for Heathrow Airport. Check-in times will dictate our schedule to a large extent here. Thereafter, the trip will be all memories — very many of them, and all of them we hope happy ones.
Updated: 06 September 2007
Prices
- 2008 price about $7,850
- Single Occupancy Supplement $900
Notes
Maximum group size 16 and two leaders. The 2008 Great British Experience will be the last iteration of this remarkable tour.