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A barn owl that was rehabilitated and released by the RSPCA more than...
The best places to live in the UK
Ben Hoare
Perhaps it’s a case of the grass always looking greener on the other side, but I have often wondered what it’s like to live in a wildlife paradise. Somewhere clean, tranquil and unpolluted, with a wide range of species-rich habitats in easy reach. Somewhere with lots of fascinating animals to see and enjoy, but no traffic and urban sprawl to spoil things.
But does such a place exist in these overcrowded islands of ours?
This got the BBC Wildlife team thinking. What’s the best place for wildlife in the UK?
So, back in 2007, the magazine carried out an exhaustive survey of every county in Britain. It was a bit like doing a wildlife audit of the entire nation.
For each county in turn, BBC Wildlife looked at the number of species found there, the total protected area, and the health of the environment, including factors such as air and light pollution, traffic volumes, water quality and population density.
After months of research and hours of argument, we finally had a shortlist of the very best places to live in Britain if you love wildlife.
Of course, things may have changed since 2007 – if so, get in touch us to let us know!
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THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN THE UK IF YOU LOVE WILDLIFE
Where is the most tranquil, unpolluted, wildlife-rich corner of the UK? And where should wildlife lovers aspire to live? After much research, we’ve come up with the definitive answer.
By Chris Baker and Fergus Collins
We often show you great places to visit in Britain to experience nature, yet wouldn’t it be wonderful to live surrounded by a superb variety of flora and fauna? But where is this British Eden? And where do you start trying to find it? Maybe you’re already living there.
To find out, we gathered a wide variety of data and analysed it according to region and then specific counties. The aspects we believed important to wildlife-lovers included environmental factors, such as congestion, pollution and water quality – wildlife prefers quieter, car-less regions, with clean rivers and streams – as well as the number and variety of nature reserves within each county and proportion of the county that is protected for nature.
Where there was data – and there was surprisingly little to be found – we also looked at the variety of species in each county.
One of the dangers of an exercise of this kind is that it begins to resemble a set of league tables, a human characteristic that wildlife has sensibly chosen to ignore. And yet the research reveals clear patterns.
The lay of the land
Generally speaking, if you are looking for high numbers of different species, head south or east; if you are seeking open spaces, tranquillity and a greater density of wild animals and plants, take yourself north or west.
The South-east, the UK’s economic hothouse and where human impact on the environment is greatest, scores well for species that like it warm and dry – butterflies, moths and dragonflies.
The high species-count reflects the influence of rich heathland and down in this region, but what remains of these rich habitats is only a tiny fragment of what once existed. The Weald casts its influence, too, in Kent and Sussex, where much ancient woodland survives.
How long this will stay the same is anybody’s guess. House building, road construction and airport expansion, to name a few, continue to encroach. Rising demand for water in an increasingly drought-stricken region could have a catastrophic effect on wildlife.
But before we get too gloomy, it is worth noting that the four 10-kilometre squares identified by the New Atlas of British Flora as the richest in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all places heavily influenced by man.
Wonderful woodland
Wetlands and woodland, ancient and modern, can be found pretty much everywhere, and if you have wetlands or ancient woods you also have rich biodiversity.
Tranquillity, however, is in increasingly short supply virtually everywhere, yet this is an important factor for wildlife – and our enjoyment of nature. For example, the map includes traffic figures for each of the nine English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For comparison, road traffic in the UK amounted to 518 billion vehicle kilometres in 2005, compared to 200 billion in 1970 and 77 billion in 1955.
This environmental impact leads inexorably to the big one. Per capita CO2 emissions, a fairly rigorous test of sustainability, are also included (based on WWF-UK’s Counting Consumption report). Using a consumption indicator, which attempts to gauge all the CO2 we are responsible for, the UK produces 11.8 tonnes per person per year. As a rough comparison, the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre estimates the UK’s CO2 emissions in 1970 were 3.1 tonnes per person per year.
A time of change
Average daily temperatures in the UK’s 10 warmest counties were 0.3°C higher during 1971 to 2000 than during the 1961 to 1990 recording period. In central England, where the Met Office has been able to analyse records going back 350 years, temperatures are about 1°C higher than in the 1950s.
But this picture of the best places to live if you love wildlife might prove temporary.
Dr Richard Betts, climate scientist at the Met Office’s Hadley Centre, says: “The past is no longer a guide to the future; the natural world, the wildlife in the UK, is facing conditions that it has not faced before – we are finding ourselves in new territory.”
Because of changes to local government – in England in particular, where the system is a mess masquerading as a muddle – continuity of data has been difficult. Some information is held for the English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, some for county and unitary local authorities, some for the 1974 counties in England and Wales and regions in Scotland, and some for the historic counties. We have tried to untangle this as best we can.
AND THE WINNERS ARE…
After months of research, weeks of analysis and hours of argument, we can reveal that the best places to live in Britain if you love wildlife are:
Best in Wales: Montgomeryshire
- Part of Powys, this mid-Wales county wins in Wales primarily for its enormous area of protected land.
- But it is also a tranquil, unpolluted and beautiful part of the countryside where, in the words of a BBC producer who was recently filming there: “you can see wildlife going about its business unaffected by humans.”
- It does particularly well as it contains Wales’s largest inland protected area, the RSPB’s stunning Lake Vyrnwy reserve.
Best in Scotland: Highland
- Most people expected Highland to win and it makes a strong case.
- It is one of the least polluted, least congested and most tranquil corners of Scotland, let alone the UK.
- It has the largest area under protection of any county, mostly in huge reserves where you can roam unhindered and see spectacular wildlife.
- However, despite its size, Highland does not have the range of habitats and species to make it the overall winner.
Best in Ireland: County Antrim
- This is the UK’s biggest wildlife secret.
- The wild and beautiful Causeway Coast and the RSPB’s Rathlin Cliffs reserve are superb for seabirds, while the lagoons and mudflats of Belfast Lough are Northern Ireland’s most biodiverse hotspot.
- Inland, the countryside is unspoilt with great walking and plenty of wildlife to discover. Few people and fewer cars mean that it is one of the best places in Britain to get away from it all.
Best in England and the UK: Cumbria
- When it comes to variety, beauty and abundance of wildlife, Cumbria is the county with everything.
- For the sheer size of the area protected and variety of wildlife habitats, Cumbria is hard to beat. Its 278 SSSIs and 104 nature reserves (protecting 25,000 hectares) mean there are endless possibilities for the wildlife-lover.
- The lack of light pollution implies that it is a fairly sparsely inhabited county, with few urban centres.
- The increasing populations of both farmland and woodland birds are healthy signs, and while the north-west region performs averagely on the pollution front, much of this is generated by the conurbations of Greater Manchester and Merseyside further south.
- A close look at its nature reserves and SSSIs reveals Cumbria to be a place of mountains and moorlands, ancient woodlands, wildflower meadows and delightful river valleys, including the aptly named River Eden.
- And not forgetting the Lakes. Crowded they may be in July and August, but out of season and away from the bigger towns, they are a stunning wilderness where you are guaranteed to see deer, red squirrels, ospreys, peregrines, a host of rare woodland birds and, if you visit Haweswater, England’s only golden eagle.
- But Cumbria is much more than the Lake District. Rising to the Pennines to the east and the Scottish Borders to the north, the rest of the county is a particular treat, boasting relatively unspoilt farmland, deciduous woodland and bogs and mires.
- Another major factor in Cumbria’s victory is its long and varied coastline. There are sandy beaches, rockpools, cliffs with colonies of nesting seabirds and vast coastal marshes and mudflats – such as Morecambe Bay (see p10) and the Solway Firth – that host wintering waders and wildfowl. If you are a wildlife-lover and you live in Cumbria, you should count yourself very lucky indeed.
But what this study has shown most is that wherever you live – even deep within a city – there is a multitude of wild havens to visit and endless wildlife to discover. Enjoy!
Ben is the features editor of BBC Wildlife. To meet him and the rest of the team, click here.
