Eight perfect locations for skylark song
The facts of skylarks are not quite as the poems would have them: singing has a function, as males defend territories and boast. In recent years, the British population has crashed, but they are still widespread. Here are some of the places you can hear and see them…
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Peak District
Along the Tissington Trail you can cycle under skylarks along the old railway line.
Along the Tissington Trail you can cycle under skylarks along the old railway line.
North Norfolk Coast
Above the wet fields between Holkham and Burnham Overy, the larks start singing before the pink-footed geese head off for their Arctic summers.
Exmoor, Somerset
Around Dunkery Beacon the larks fly up above the brown heather and drift over the deep cut and dark green oak wood coombes at East Water and Horner Water.
Lizard, Cornwall
Larks love the short-grass of the cliff-tops and the fields. England’s only choughs are there, too.
North Uist, Outer Hebrides
The machair grasslands on the Atlantic coast hum with breeding waders and are dotted with rare flowers in spring and summer.
Brecon Beacons, Wales
On a bright spring day you can walk for 10 miles from hilltop to hilltop and never be without a skylark guide.
Beachy Head and seven sisters, Sussex
Watch larks fly up from the grass and so high they must almost be able to see Paris.
Chilterns, Buckinghamshire
At Studham Common, five miles from Luton, there are summer orchids in the grass and red kites jostling overhead with the larks.
Read more about these wonderful birds in our skylark feature in the June issue of Countryfile Magazine.
