What is the countryside?
Countryside is the land in rural areas of a country, away from large towns, cities, and industrial areas.
Watch: Explore the countryside of the UK
Learn more about the activities that can be done in the UK countryside.
Most of us live in cities and towns but did you know most of the UK is rural, or countryside?
Hi, I鈥檓 Seren and today I鈥檓 exploring the countryside around Hay-On-Wye in rural Wales, where there are wide open fields, farmland, forest, hills and rivers. Let鈥檚 go and have a look around鈥
Areas of the countryside that are as lovely as here attract tourists, and tourism is often vital. It provides well-being for visitors and they spend money, which can help people living here.
People go biking, animal spotting, fishing, horse riding, canoeing and of course, walking.
While some of those activities are free, visitors spend money at nearby restaurants, cafes, pubs and all kinds of shops, usually selling local goods.
But for some locals, tourists can be a bit of a problem. Large parts of the countryside are needed for agriculture, which means farming, and that can be affected by tourists.
Organisations and the local government, made up of employees and volunteers, work with land owners, like farmers, to balance tourism and agriculture. A lot of farmers have boundaries between the land they need to use鈥︹nd the land we get to explore for leisure 鈥 but bring a map in case you get lost!
The further into the countryside you go, the further away you are from cities. But in places like The Pentland Hills Regional Park in Scotland, there are different kinds of settlements to be found nearby鈥
Surrounding the striking scenery of The Pentland Hills, you鈥檒l find these different types of settlement, which go in order from smallest to biggest: isolated dwellings, where a single person or very small group live together; hamlets like Silverburn; villages like Milton Bridge; small towns like Penicuik; big towns and finally, cities 鈥 such as Edinburgh.
How close are you to the countryside? And what kind of settlement do you live in?
Which reminds me, I need to get back to mine 鈥 but it鈥檚 a long walk from here鈥
How is the countryside used?
The land here can be used for:
fields for farming
holiday destinations for tourists
natural habitats for animals and plants
activity destinations for runners, cyclists and hikers
Green belt is a special type of countryside around towns and cities, where building is not allowed at all, or is very limited.
Settlements found in the countryside are usually:
Isolated houses or farms
Hamlets
Villages
UK countryside and regions
Most of the UK is rural countryside and like the rest of the country, it is always changing.
In some places, people move away to find jobs. In others, new homes are built for people who want to live in the countryside.
However, there are some areas of the countryside that cannot be built on or changed, such as National Parks and other protected sites.
How the land in the countryside is used depends on many things, such as:
鈥 the climate
鈥 the type of soil
鈥 the landscape
鈥 the travel links
Tourism
The countryside is visited by many tourists throughout the year.
The UK countryside has a wide variety of tourist attractions and there are many interesting ways to spend free time in rural areas.
Find out more about some of them in this slideshow:
Image caption, Stately homes
Country estates were once homes to rich aristocratic families and their servants. Today, many have been made into museums, where people can learn about life in the past. They are also surrounded by well-kept gardens, where people can walk and enjoy picnics.
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Changes
Many once remote areas have changed because of the number of visitors and people living there. Here is an example: Hay-on-Wye.
Tourism has changed the way the land is used and provided many local people with jobs.
There are lots of different reasons for tourists to visit Hay-on-Wye, including:
a yearly literature festival, which hosts famous authors and other celebrities
several galleries showing and selling art and crafts often produced by artists from the UK
hotels and camping sites providing accommodation to holidaymakers staying for longer
the many bookshops, which the town is famous for
pubs and restaurants providing refreshments
cycling, walking and canoeing routes.
Activities
Quiz: Exploring the countryside
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