We rate the nation’s most beautiful and fascinating sights and ask - how many have you actually visited?
We consider ourselves a pretty patriotic nation. And why not? We have enough history, natural beauty and quirky corners packed into these fair isles to keep us busily exploring for several lifetimes.
Yet, according to a recent survey, twice as many of us Brits have visited the Eiffel Tower than Stonehenge.
Are we so obsessed with overseas holidays that we are overlooking our own national treasures? And if so, surely now is the time – with spiralling travel costs, the credit crunch and the weakening pound – to rediscover the best that Britain has to offer.
So, we have grilled our travel experts, polled you our readers and agonised over the options to bring you our countdown of Britain’s very best 50 sights.
Take a look. You might be surprised. And then tell us here - honestly - how many of our nation’s wonders have you actually visited?
British wonders: 49 Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
Location: Ballintoy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
What’s the damage? £3.70
Extreme vertigo sufferers are excused from visiting this national wonder. But anyone with even half a head for heights should keep it on their lists, as the British Isles have few more thrilling and windswept spots than the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge on the rugged Northern Irish coast.
Just 1m wide and 20m long, the bridge is strung precariously across a chasm between the sea cliffs and a small island with excellent views of Rathlin Island and Fair Head. Fishermen have been rigging the rope bridge up every spring for 200 years.
Even on a calm day, the bridge sways in the sea breeze, so try not to pay too much attention to the 30m drop to jagged rocks and crashing surf below. You risk joining the many visitors who have been too scared to return across the bridge and have had to be ferried back by boat.
British wonders: 50 Falkirk Wheel
Location: Near Falkirk, Scotland
What’s the damage? Boat trip £8
A recent – and for some surprising – inclusion in the list of Britain’s top attractions is this ambitious rotating boatlift mid-way between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Falkirk Wheel was designed as an innovative solution to an old problem: how to join the Forth & Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, which lay 35m – about the height of a 10-storey building – below.
It was designed as a working beast, but has also taken on an iconic status since opening in 2002 – and is now one of Scotland’s biggest tourist draws. You can take a whirl on the huge contraption by hopping aboard a boat that takes you up to the higher level, out through the aqueduct and under the ancient Antonine Wall, itself a World Heritage site.
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