Remote Sandwood Estate in the highlands of Sutherland boasts undeveloped countryside and two of Britain’s best beaches; the golden sands of Oldshoremore, reached easily from a single track road, and the distant arc of Sandwood Bay over two kilometres long.

Accessible only on foot, rugged Sandwood Bay is the perfect place to experience the natural high of wild camping. 

If you’re looking for a white-knuckle drive with jaw dropping views, head for the Bealach nam Bò, or Pass of the Cattle, in the spectacular highland scenery of Wester Ross, Scotland.

From Kishorn to Applecross, the single-track mountain road is bleak, dangerous and not for the faint hearted.

Starting at Kishorn, the road bristles with warning signs and a low level alternative is suggested for learner drivers, large vehicles and scaredy cats.

So who is going to drive? Passengers have permission to gasp at the views; drivers must have eyes only for the snaking road ahead. Otherwise it’s curtains.

It’s not often you arrive at the station to be greeted by a chalk board declaring all 400 train tickets are ‘Sold Out’, but that’s what happens at Fort William when the train in steam is the magical Hogwarts Express.

In Harry Potter films, the Hogwarts Express leaves London’s Kings Cross Station from platform 9 ¾ and races through dramatic scenery along ‘The Road To The Isles’, the route of West Coast Railway’s Jacobite train.

For two hours, from Fort William at the foot of Ben Nevis mountain to the fishing port of Mallaig on the Atlantic Ocean, it’s drama all the way.

The remote Crinan Canal in Argyll and Bute is known as ‘Britain’s most beautiful short cut.’ Opened in 1801, the waterway links the Sound of Jura and the West coast of Scotland with Loch Fyne and the Clyde Estuary. At Crinan harbour, a visit to the family run Crinan Hotel near the sea lock is a must. Frances Macdonald, one of Scotland’s most highly acclaimed contemporary artists is at the helm with her husband, Nick Ryan. Together, they have made the hotel a heavenly oasis; staying there is a real treat.

‘The artistic centre of Galloway is Kirkcudbright, where the painters form a scattered constellation, whose nucleus is in the High Street, and whose outer stars twinkle in remote hillside cottages.’
Dorothy L Sayers

West of the Lake District, there is superb coastal scenery around the distinctive red sandstone cliffs of St Bees Head. Along with some of England’s largest seabird colonies, you’ll find the simple pleasures of country walks, bike rides and buckets and spades on the beach.

The pretty village of St Bees has welcomed pilgrims in search of miracles for more than one thousand years. According to Medieval legend, St Bega, the holy daughter of an Irish King, refused to marry a Viking chieftain, jumped in her coracle and sailed alone across the Irish Sea to St Bees.

Three tidal islands, extraordinary bird watching, challenging golf and spectacular sunsets make the Wirral peninsula on England’s northwest coast a special place to visit.

Twenty kilometres long and nine kilometres wide, the marshy Dee estuary, is one of the most important wetland sites in northwest Europe. The winter arrival of over 80,000 birds from Iceland, Greenland and the Arctic puts it in the top ten for over wintering wildfowl and waders.

Exceptionally high tides between September and March, bring mayhem to the marsh. You’ll need to stake your place among twitchers along the shore to watch the gripping wildlife drama unfold.

Welsh language and culture remain strong on the Llŷn peninsula, pointing out to sea like a witch’s bony finger. This is a landscape of whitewashed farms in patchwork fields, deep country lanes and high hedges brimming with bramble, fern and wildflowers.

Footpaths and cycleways entice you to explore sandy beaches, picturesque harbours and a wide range of marine habitats.

Spend a Welsh weekend pottering around the quiet industrial heritage of the beautiful north Pembrokeshire Coast. Simple pleasures, mooching on secluded beaches and discovering one Britain’s best preserved Bronze Age settlements, make this a great escape.

Laid-back Porthgain is gathered around a village green, close to the lovely harbour. In the nineteenth century the community grew around brickworks and two quarries, known as Jerusalem and Caersalem, which kept local people in employment until closure in the 1930s.

The crisp sea air is pure and the industrial harbour is quiet now but Porthgain is an atmospheric place; it’s easy to imagine how the hillside must have resounded to the din of ships loading up with hard dolerite road stone bound for Ireland, the hissing steam crusher grinding slabs of rock into assorted sizes, the narrow gauge railway rattling back and forth over the headland and clouds of dust everywhere.

Sublime beaches and an exhilarating circular walk around Stackpole Head in the southwest corner of Pembrokeshire, the UK’s only coastal National Park, make this weekend perfect for time away with friends or family.

The ten-kilometre walk starts at Bosherston. Before setting out, visit the Olde Worlde café where Mrs Weston, or Aunty Vi to regulars, has been serving tea for over seventy years. In 2009 she received an MBE in recognition of her services to hospitality and tourism. Opened by her parents in 1922, the café exudes time warp charm.

Leave the fast lane behind and escape off the M4 motorway in South Wales to explore Glamorgan’s rich coastal landscape marked by ancient history, extraordinary geology and strange goings on.

Nash Point is an atmospheric place. On the beach, rock fall from near vertical soft cliffs appears like smashed digestive biscuits over wide wave platforms.

Behind the beach, chains of horses were hidden in a sheltered wooded valley to carry smugglers’ contraband inland.

Back to school for surf lessons on Cornwall’s Atlantic coast, where the teachers wear wetsuits, the classroom is a golden beach and the playground is the pounding ocean.

Surfing is booming although the scene has changed dramatically since the heady days of the Sixties and the Beach Boys’ ’‘bushy, bushy blonde hairdos’. Now balding novices and silver surfers are just as likely to catch a wave alongside those sun kissed bleached blonde dudes.

Between the tourist magnets of St Ives and Lands End, there’s wonderful West Penwith, a wild, windswept place, strewn with the chaos of giant boulders, ancient stones, burial places and country paths shrouded in mystery. There’s no doubting its appeal. The western extremity of Cornwall is an intriguing place to spend a few days.