Westonbirt Arboretum opens UK’s longest treetop walkway

THE LONGEST treetop walkway in the UK has opened to the public at the National Arboretum at #Westonbirt, Gloucestershire.

The walkway starts and finishes at ground level using the topography of the land, rising 42ft as it follows the valley floor.

c. Paul Groom

The sinuous elevated 320-yard route meanders through the arboretum, offering the chance to get up close with trees and the canopy, as well as views across the historic landscape.

Architect Glenn Howells said: ‘We are very proud to have designed this unique treetop walkway for the historic and internationally renowned arboretum at Westonbirt. The walkway allows all visitors, regardless of age or ability, to experience the site from the treetops for the first time. Focusing on visitor needs and materiality, the walkway is designed to disappear as a sinuous silver ribbon that meanders between trees and canopies. The aim is that this new feature will greatly enhance visitor experience and help to ensure Westonbirt's popularity for many years to come.’

www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt

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Conservation champ’s Slimbridge home to open to the public

THE former home of the conservation champion and naturalist Sir Peter Scott is to be opened to the public, the BBC reports. The nature reserve at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, which he helped to establish, will also be developed. 

Sir Peter, who died in 1989, built his home near the Severn Estuary in the 1950s so that he could observe wildlife.

The WWT has been given a £4.4 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant towards the £6 million scheme. 

The BBC's first natural history show was presented by Sir Peter live from the lounge in the house in 1953. Much of his house remains as it was when he died.

New attractions at #Slimbridge will include an aviary and theatre, more observation hides, and access to the WWT's conservation duckery.

Sir Peter, whose father was the Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott, helped to found both the WWT and the World Wildlife Fund.

The WWT needs to raise a further £1.6 million towards the full cost of the project, work on which will start in 2017.

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Top spots for UK holidays

HOLIDAYCOTTAGES.CO.UK has published its predictions of the most popular vacation destinations for 2016.                                                   Based on 2015 bookings made compared to 2014, the list of destinations across the UK puts Gloucestershire on top with Padstow in Cornwall is ranked last.

Destination % increase in bookings in 2015

• Gloucestershire 88%
• Cardigan, West Wales 78% 
• Gairloch, The Highlands 29% 
• Bath, Somerset 24% 
• York and the Wolds 24% 
• Loch Ness, Inverness 20% 
• Westward Ho!, North Devon 19% 
• West Bay, Dorset 18% 
• Padstow, North Cornwall 14% 

James Morris, managing director of Holidaycottages.co.uk said: ‘Our annual list of destinations attracting the most bookings from our many thousands of customers is a guide to tourism trends.

‘What’s interesting to us about this year’s list is the spread of destinations throughout the British Isles from Loch Ness to West Bay. According to this list the South West may be losing ground to destinations that a few years ago wouldn’t have had a look in.’

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Picture Credit: Country lane by Jongleur100 - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons 

Birds behaving badly

#BIRDLAND in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, is celebrating birds behaving badly over the February #halftermholidays. 

From blood-sucking songbirds and puking penguins to stinking storks and spitting swallows, keepers will reveal revolting facts about some of the world's naughtiest birds.

There will be talks and trails highlighting the horrible aspects of natural history, and visitors will be able to meet some feathered critters during meet-the-creatures sessions.

‘Despite their often angelic reputations, birds are definitely among the worst behaved animals on the planet with some truly disgusting table manners,’ says head keeper Alistair Keen. ‘They have also devised devilish defences and awfully amazing attacking abilities. The so-called stink bird from New Guinea eats toxic beetles and then converts it into poison which covers its wings.’

Birdland has also created a Jurassic Journey, an interactive trail back to the time when dinosaurs roamed the Cotswolds.

The centre has more than 500 birds, ranging from the UK's only breeding colony of king penguins and parrots to cassowaries and cranes in a mix of free-flying and aviary displays.

www.birdland.co.uk

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Dave and Posh spur Cotswold holiday bookings

FOLLOWING reports – albeit unconfirmed – that Mr and Mrs Beckham are planning to buy a mansion in the Cotswolds, holidaycottages.co.uk reports a surge in interest for breaks in the area. Its bookings for properties in Gloucestershire have seen a 91 per cent increase in the January-October period this year. 

National newspapers have reported that the #Beckhams, having been seen in Gloucestershire by celeb spotters, have fallen in lurve with a £27million Grade II-listed country estate near Stow-on-the-Wold in the #Cotswolds, and plan to buy it. 

The manor house has ten bedrooms, and the estate – said to be the most expensive country house package currently on the market in England – includes two entrance lodges and 11 farmhouses and cottages.

holidaycottages.co.uk has more than 70 Cotswolds properties including family-friendly cottages, converted barns on working farms, and traditional, chocolate-box homes.

www.holidaycottages.co.uk/gloucestershire

Go Holiday editor David Kernek comments: I can think of a dozen reasons to have a cottage holiday in the Cotswolds. That Mr and Mrs Beckham have a place there would not be one of them!

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Myths & legends at Birdland

VISITORS will be able to let their imagination loose at #BirdlandPark, Bourton-on-the-Water, during the October half term holidays with a #Halloween themed Myths & Legends week (October 24-November 1) and the Jurassic Journey Trail.

There will be talks which will explain why owls are thought to be wise, where the legend of the phoenix came from, and why the Roman believed the call of a certain bird meant imminent death … plus quiz trails, close encounter sessions, and feeding displays.

On the Jurassic Journey Trail, explorers will be armed with dinosaur tracker kits for a roam across a land that was home to more than 30 different dinosaurs.

Birdland – in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire – opens daily from 10am.

www.birdland.co.uk

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Picture Credit: www.birdland.co.uk

Pop in to see the penguins

KEEPERS at Birdland, Bourton-on-the-Water, are busy looking after their growing colony of Humboldt penguins. 

New nesting sites have been installed and the penguins have been showing more than just a passing interest in them.

Humboldts incubate their eggs for approximately 40 days, with both male and female parents taking turns to sit on the nest.

Visitors can meet the penguins and learn more at the twice-daily feeding at 11.30am and 2pm. 

Birdland (www.birdland.co.uk) is also home to a King Penguin chick, and the only breeding colony of King Penguins. 

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Picture Credit: GoHoliday via Wikimedia Commons; "King penguin chick" by Ville Miettinen via Wikimedia Commons.

Behind those bars …

FANCY a day out in a house of correction? 

Head for Littledean Jail in Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean, built in the 18th century as what was seen at the time as a model prison that influenced the design of houses of correction in London and the US.


Exhibits include instruments of punishment and torture through the ages, a genuine murder victim’s full-size skeleton, personal exhibits of Britain’s most dangerous criminals, weapons used by the criminal underworld and street gangs, the UK’s largest private collection of British and foreign police memorabilia including uniforms and Victorian truncheons, and a hangman’s noose, plus – inexplicably – a Dr Who Dalek, a gypsy caravan, an Indonesian fertility statue, Nazi SS ephemera, and QUADROPHENIA memorabilia.

http://littledeanjail.com


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Picture Credit - From Top: 'Littledean Jail' via littledeanjail.com; 'Dalek' by Richard Howard / Go Holiday

Half term with the birds

Undertaker Bird - Marabou Stork

THERE will be a Halloween-themed Myths and Legends event at Birdland in Gloucestershire during the coming half term holiday (October 25-November 2).

From Ancient Egypt to Alfred Hitchcock, birds have always held a fascination, spawning many myths and legends. Discover why owls are considered to be wise and where the legend of the phoenix came from in talks at the Bourton-on-the-Water attraction.  

Come face to face with the Undertaker Bird and find out which bird's call the Roman's believed meant imminent death. There will be quiz trails, close encounter sessions, and feeding displays throughout the holidays.   

The attraction has more than 500 exotic and rare birds from around the world.

www.birdland.co.uk

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Picture Credit: The Marabou Stork by Harvey Barrison from Massapequa, NY, USA via Wikimedia Commons