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Exploring the UK's countryside

Part of The World Around UsGeography of the UKYear 5Year 6

What is the countryside?

A pond with a heron, duck and otter

Countryside is the land in rural areas of a country, away from large towns, cities, and industrial areas.

A pond with a heron, duck and otter

Watch: Explore the countryside of the UK

Learn more about the activities that can be done in the UK countryside.

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How is the countryside used?

A girl sat on a camping chair outside a tent

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

A girl sat on a camping chair outside a tent
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UK countryside and regions

A farmer with two sheep

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:

• the climate

• the type of soil

• the landscape

• the travel links

A farmer with two sheep
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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:

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  1. A stately home

    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.

A street with bookshops in the small Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye.
Hay-on-Wye is a small town in the Brecon Beacons National Park that stands on the River Wye. A site of a Norman castle and once a town on a route for transporting coal, it is popular with tourists for a number of reasons.

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.

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Activities

Quiz: Exploring the countryside

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Help this team of adventurers race their way to victory, by practicing your geography skills

Race Across the Continents
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