The UK has 15 designated national parks, including ten in England, three in Wales and two in Scotland. All are living, working landscapes that are free to visit. As such, they collectively attract more than 100 million visitors each year – a figure that is growing annually, reflecting the increased appreciation for nature and urban escapes in a post-lockdown world.
As one of the most geologically diverse countries in the world, it’s perhaps no surprise that the UK’s national parks are also infinitely varied. Landscapes within our national parks include upland moor and mountains, sprawling woodland and forest, coastal beaches, cliffs and wetlands, rolling heath and chalk grassland, and innumerable lakes, rivers and streams.
Many honeypot locations in the national parks have become world famous, including heritage sites like Hadrian’s Wall and beauty spots from Loch Lomond to the Jurassic Coast. Other tourists are drawn to the rugged mountains and crumbling castles of Eryri (Snowdonia) or the shimmering tarns and glorious fells of the Lake District. All are undeniably epic places to visit and explore.
But what about if you want to get off the beaten track? If you’re the kind of person who prefers splendid solitude to throngs of people, it’s worth heading to some of the less-visited national parks. Here, you can enjoy their stunning scenery in untrammelled isolation, picking your own adventures at your own pace, without the company of the crowds.
So, because we like underdogs here at WildBounds, here’s our carefully curated rundown of the UK’s less well-known national parks. Arguably undervalued and underappreciated, they deserve your visits. You’d be doing those other places a favour too. After all, avoiding the honeypots can help to alleviate problems like overcrowding, erosion, strain on park services and potential impacts on wildlife and natural habitats. But more to the point, why would you want to join the masses that already flock to Cumbria or North Wales, when you could be exploring some of Britain’s most majestic landscapes with barely another soul in sight?
Statistically, this is one of the UK’s least visited national parks. Now, let’s put that into context – it still has approximately 1.7 million visitor days every year. But with the lowest permanent population and the lowest population density of any national park in England, Northumberland often feels comparatively empty – certainly compared to other national parks that are close to big urban populations, like the South Downs, or classic honeypot destinations like the Lake District.
As the most northerly national park in England, the park is also home to Hadrian’s Wall, a colossal triumph of Roman engineering, originally built to defend the fringes of the Roman Empire from the marauding Picts. Today, it’s a designated World Heritage Site – though inevitably this makes it a tourist draw too. But if you want to escape the hordes, Northumberland has some gloriously rugged and remote areas to visit, including the vast expanses of Kielder Forest and the Cheviot Hills.
Exmoor is one of the smaller national parks in the UK, with a total area of just 268 square miles. In fact, only the New Forest and The Broads are smaller. But it receives far fewer visitors than those two parks, with on average just 1.4 million visitors a year. That makes it a great place to escape the crowds. Nestled on the border between Somerset and Devon, it boasts dramatic coastal landscapes, rolling hills and lush woodland. You’ll find forest floors swathed in spring bluebells, ponies running wild amongst the heather and England’s highest sea cliffs plunging dramatically into the sea.
Sparsely populated, Exmoor is also home to some of the darkest skies in the country and is a designated International Dark Sky Reserve. On a clear night, the stars are simply stunning, and many astronomical wonders can be seen with the naked eye alone, including our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
Famously, Exmoor’s landscapes also inspired several notable artists, writers and poets (Percy Bysshe Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were regular visitors). It continues to provide solitude and inspiration for those looking to escape the stresses of modern life today.
Located in the Eastern Highlands of Scotland, the Cairngorms is by far the UK’s largest national park, covering some 1,748 square miles. But despite its vast size, the park sees just 1.5 million visitors each year. So, if it’s remoteness you’re after, this is the place to come. The park is home to some of the UK’s most spectacular uplands and multiple Munros (Scottish peaks over 3,000ft). In fact, there are 55 Munros in total, including Britain’s second highest mountain, Ben Macdui.
In winter, it can be an epic place to come mountaineering and climbing, with challenging scrambles and climbs in some testing and occasionally fearsome conditions. Wildlife highlights include the ptarmigan and snow bunting in their white winter plumage, as well as mountain hares and the UK’s only free-ranging reindeer herd. You can also find Scotland’s best established winter sports areas here. Cairn Gorm mountain near Aviemore can provide excellent skiing or snowboarding if you get the conditions right. Other memorable winter adventures include snow holing expeditions, with the chance to spend the night buried in the snowpack of the sprawling Cairngorms plateau.
With 117 square miles of wetlands and rivers all set in the genteel countryside of Norfolk and Suffolk, The Broads is actually the UK’s smallest national park. But it is a perfect destination for paddlers, whether your chosen craft is a canoe, a kayak or a stand-up paddleboard. It’s also a paradise for wild swimmers. Along these waterways, you’ll find charming windmills and country pubs, while the banks are alive with birdlife and butterflies.
Admittedly, The Broads attracts more than 7 million visitors a year, a far greater number than some of the other national parks in this list. And like any national park, it has its honeypots. These include Wroxham and Potter Higham, often choked with motor cruisers and other pleasure boats. But if you’re in a smaller, human-powered craft, it’s easy to explore the smaller lakes, ponds and rivers, which aren’t navigable in bigger boats. This ensures it’s easy to escape the busier sections and enjoy the relaxed pace of life on the water, peering into reed beds and scanning the tangled riverbanks for glimpses of wildlife, from otters to kingfishers.
As its name suggests, the North York Moors is one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the UK. But the eastern boundary of the park butts right up to the North Sea, which means it also includes 26 miles of coastline. Admittedly, it sees up to 9 million visitors each year. But a large proportion tend to stick to this coastal area, gravitating to tourist spots such as Whitby, Staithes, Saltburn and Robin Hood’s Bay. In contrast, the moors are often seemingly deserted, save for grouse and sheep. Given that the park has more than 1,400 miles of public rights of way, it’s easy to explore it on foot. Keen birdwatchers may spot curlew, golden plover and lapwing as well as several species of raptors.
History buffs will also love the North York Moors for its rich heritage – there are more than 700 listed monuments within the boundaries of the park, including neolithic barrows and ancient stone crosses. It is truly a place where you can feel connected to the past, whilst tramping the moors in splendid isolation.
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