Guide to Britain's best spring drives, from Northern Ireland's dramatic coast roads to the rolling hills of Shakespeare Country.
Here are our top five springtime drives.
Shakespeare Country
Travel around the area that inspired many of the great works of the Baird. Explore market towns, relax in welcoming pubs and discover peaceful churches and historic attractions throughout the heart of England. Visit shakespeare-country.co.uk for a detailed description of four different routes, highlights of which include Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Warwick Castle and the Roman town of Alcester.
Lake District
The scenery never ends on a drive through Cumbria’s National Park. From the fells to the fields, mountains to the moorland, the Lake District is picture postcard after picture postcard. For more literary inspiration head along the A592, which hugs the shoreline of Ullswater – Wordsworth wrote his most famous poem after he discovered wild daffodils growing along its shore. For more visit www.golakes.co.uk.
Scottish Highlands
See Scotland at its most glorious on the drive along the B869 from Lochinver to Sutherland’s Assynt region – the most northern region on the Scottish mainland. Traversing the coastline for 22 miles keep your eyes peeled for red deer, sea otters, ospreys and seals.
Dartmoor National Park
Situated in Devon, the 32.5-mile drive from Yelverton to Exeter, through the Dartmoor National Park, consists of miles of rolling grassland, river valley woodland and rocky slopes. Sites along the way include the famous Dartmoor Prison in Princetown, a Bronze Age settlement, the thatched-cottaged village of Dunsford and the historic university town of Exeter.
Antrim Coast Road
Despite its place in some of the darkest events in Irish history (namely as an escape route for a starving population during the 1845 potato famine) the Antrim Coast road, from Larne to Cushendun, remains one of the most unique and scenic coastal drives in the UK. Built in the 1830s, the road hugs the coast around massive headlands and great bays for 22 miles.
