Why pop-up campsites are the answer to your last-minute half-term break
Enjoy the mini-heatwave in the nation’s top holiday spots at one of the UK’s growing number of pop-up campsites
25 May 2021 • 3:13pm
Wake up to Welsh sea views at Nolton Haven Bay Campsite
Credit: Nolton Haven Bay Campsite
The bank holiday weekend is fast approaching, the kids are set to break up for the May half-term and forecasters are predicting a (long overdue) mini-heatwave – the perfect excuse for a mini break on home soil. Except, everywhere is fully booked, isn’t it?
Not quite.
It’s no secret that the UK’s self-catered accommodation is experiencing a surge in demand, with properties in holiday hotspots such as the Lake District and Cornwall fit to burst during peak dates. Hotels have also reopened to long waiting lists.
By Philip Sedgwick
The team from The Wensleydale Experience, winners of the best tourism business at the recent Rural Business Awards A WENSLEYDALE-based business is celebrating being named as the country’s best rural tourism company. The Rural Business Awards aim to recognise and celebrate the successes of businesses operating in the UK’s rural economy – a sector which in England alone contributes £261bn to the nation’s economy, nearly a fifth of the country’s total economic activity. Held online for the first time due to the lockdown, in the 2020/21 national final, 12 category winners were announced following a record number of entrants. The winner of the Best Rural Tourism Business was North Yorkshire-based The Wensleydale Experience.
The coir logs and stone, brought to site by helicopter, are being used to block erosion channels. Brash – a mixture of cut heather, cotton grass and other peatland plants – is being spread over bare areas of peat to re-seed it and protect it from eroding further. Much precious peat has been washed off the moor in recent decades. On parts of Fleet Moss, channels four metres deep have appeared. This means four thousand years of history have in effect been swept away, as peat is formed by sphagnum mosses at a rate of one metre depth every thousand years. Work on the ground has now been paused for the ground nesting bird season but it will begin again in July, before the three-year project comes to an end in December.
A WELL-RESPECTED Dales police officer is retiring this month after 29 years of service. After working in agriculture and forestry, a young Julian Sutcliffe opted to join North Yorkshire Police, attracted to working in rural environment. Eleven years ago, his background and love of nature saw him appointed one of the force’s specialist wildlife crime officers, a role he undertook additional to his normal workload. Appointed as the beat manager at Leyburn in 2013 and responsible for the vast Yorkshire Dales, this dual role meant he had one of the largest beats in the country. PC Sutcliffe has enjoyed a good working relationship with agencies such as the RSPB, RSPCA and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. He also highly regards the work by volunteer groups such as Dales Farm Watch and Swaledale Mountain Rescue.
AN ‘ENORMOUS’ amount of restoration work is taking place at the most damaged blanket bog peatland in the National Park. Thousands of tonnes of coir, brash and stone have been brought this spring to Fleet Moss, Oughtershaw and Bleaberry – an area of moorland covering 166 hectares, located six kilometres south of of Hawes. The coir logs and stone, brought to site by helicopter, are being used to block erosion channels. Brash – a mixture of cut heather, cotton grass and other peatland plants – is being spread over bare areas of peat to re-seed it and protect it from eroding further. Much precious peat has been washed off the moor in recent decades. On parts of Fleet Moss, channels four metres deep have appeared. This means four thousand years of history have in effect been swept away, as peat is formed by sphagnum mosses at a rate of one metre depth every thousand years.