It’s difficult to escape the popularity of the Six Nations rugby tournament at this time of year, but while the teams duke it out on the field, we asked GO Outdoors blog readers to vote for which of the Six Nation countries was the best for the outdoors person. In second place we visit Wales.
The best things come in small packages.
Six Nations of the Outdoors: 2nd Place Wales.
The smallest of all the countries associated with the Six Nations has plenty to offer in terms of the outdoors, so much so you voted it second in our list (They’re also pretty good at Rugby!). Some of what Wales has to offer is pretty obvious; but lets take a look at 5 areas we think all fans of the outdoors should be checking out.
1) Coastal Walking
Wales is the only country in the UK with a completely walkable coastline, the Wales coast path was opened in 2012. As well as the newer coastal path, the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path was recently voted as one of the top 10 walks in the world, the only walk from any of out six nation countries to even make the list. The path remains very popular among ramblers, and is certainly somewhere you need to check out of you’re a keen walker.It’s also worth a visit to St Govan’s head an old chapel reached by a single path in among the cliffs.
2) Snowdonia
One of Britain’s most popular National Parks and home of Britain’s ‘busiest mountain’, Snowdonia plays host to the highest peak in the British isles outside of the Highlands – Snowdon. Snowdon receives more visits than any other mountain in the British isles, with plenty of people looking to conquer it through the year in sunshine, rain or even snow.
Snowdonia has even more to offer though; along with great hikes, Snowdonia is popular with campers as well. For the more extreme among you, Snowdonia also plays host to the highest, fastest zipwire in Europe where you can reach speeds of up to 100mph coming down a mountain – you’ll not find a bigger adrenaline rush in the UK.
3) Brecon Beacons
The Brecon Beacons are a real adventurers park, from the caves to the peak of Pen Y Fan. As well as the great walks you’d expect from a National Park, the Beacons also offer up great opportunities for mountain biking, canoeing, caving, canyoning, fishing and pony trekking. Brecon Beacons is also only the fifth place in the world to be granted international dark sky reserve status which means the lack of light pollution makes it the best spot in the UK for stargazing.
4) Shell Island
A big favourite among the camping community and one that often ranks near the top when we ask our Facebook/Twitter followers to vote for their favourite areas of the UK to camp. Shell Island allows campers to get a feel for ‘wild camping’ with tents pitched further apart as opposed to standard pitching of other campsites, they also allow campfires on the beach and site. Shell Island is known as such because of the vast array of shells that wash up on it’s beaches.
5) Gower Peninsula
The Gower Peninsula was the very first area of the UK to be named an area of outstanding natural beaut, so understandably it’s a stunning location to visit during the summer time. It’s high standard of beaches are very popular with surfers and holiday makers alike, while it’s caves, and cliffs make for fantastic walks.
As you can see, for the smallest country on our list, Wales has plenty to offer, and a lot of it we haven’t even begun to cover in this article. With UK firsts, areas of world wide recognition and plenty of people paying a visit every year – the Welsh must be doing something right.
Join us next time when we tackle the number one voted country of the six nations countries – Scotland.
Visit also:
England
Ireland
France
Italy
