POWYS has been named the best place in the UK to find some peace and quiet.
With the New Year sparking new travel plans, cottage accommodation provider Cottages in Northumberland has compiled research on the best places to get away from it all in the UK to inspire 2022 getaways.
The county boasts just 26 people per square kilometre so you can be promised a place where you can find plenty of space.
A large proportion of Brecon Beacons National Park sits to the south of the Powys District where there is endless woodland, waterfalls, hills, moorlands, and heritage sites to explore.
And Powys is the only district in the UK to boast two internationally recognised dark sky reserves – the Elan Valley and Brecon Beacons Dark Sky Park. This means there is little light pollution in the district and plenty of dark sky at night-time to see the stars, which is what ranked it higher in our research.
As well as this, it has one Dark Sky Orion site and 10 Dark Sky Milky Way sites, ranking third in the whole of the UK for Dark Sky sites alone.
A spokesperson for Cottages in Northumberland said: "Think about what makes an area quiet - few people, little noise, minimal light pollution and plenty of nature, wildlife and fresh air.
"Cottages in Northumberland looked closely at this across England, Scotland and Wales, pulling together data covering population count, national park counts and dark sky sites.
"This data was then ranked to reveal the UK’s quietest areas which are all perfect locations to travel to on your next adventure, providing that much needed peace and quiet and sought after remote retreats."
So what other locations made the top 10?
Northumberland in England took second place, making it the quietest place in England. The coastal county has a low population count of 64 people per square kilometre and has more dark sky sites than anywhere else in the UK with 24.
And the Highlands of Scotland came in third, boasting the lowest population count in the whole of the UK with a mere nine people per square kilometre, helping make it the best place in Scotland to escape to for peace and quiet.
The remaining top 10 are:
- 4th Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- 5th Morayshire, Scotland
- 6th North Yorkshire, England
- 7th Pembrokeshire, Wales
- 8th Cumbria, England
- 9th Aberdeenshire, Scotland
- 10th Devon, England
To see the full breakdown of the UK’s top 10 places for peace and quiet, visit the Cottages in Northumberland blog where you will find all the information and data, as well as the top 5 quietest places in England, Scotland and Wales.
* The data was collected during November 2020. Full breakdown of the data can be found in the blog post.
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