Wild Flowers of Britain & Ireland


Book Description

The first ever fully-illustrated, fully-mapped guide to the British and Irish flora. Its restriction to the British Isles alone allows far more detail and more local information, and identification which is made easier with the inclusion of extensive maps. Includes specific details about plants appearing in certain areas and coloured maps designed to make location and identification easy, this book also includes details of local specialities for the Isles of Scilly. Also featured is an illustrated survey of recently disappeared British and Irish plants, some of which may return. With over 2000 detailed colour paintings and more than 800 maps, this is the most extensively illustrated wild flower guide to Britain and Ireland yet. Coloured, boxed keys to plants in complex or difficult groups are provided to assist ID. The Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland features information about grasses, which are often omitted in other, shorter books, along with sedges, rushes, horsetails and clubmosses. Ferns, though not strictly speaking flowering plants, are also included too.




Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places


Book Description

TRAVEL & HOLIDAY GUIDES. 'Christopher Somerville's magnificent gazetteer to Britain and Ireland's wild places could not be more timely'. Sunday Telegraph.




Wild Camping


Book Description

From getting back to nature with a tent, some matches and a few litres of bottled water, to enjoying a pub dinner and camping out in the garden afterwards, this book shows how to get stuck into wild camping in all its forms. Beautiful wildernesses; tiny budgets; environmentally-friendly... What's not to like? There's an idea that wild camping is illegal in Britain, but it isn't – you just need to know the rules and where to go. This guide will open up this amazing experience for all, covering: - what is wild camping and why bother? - different types (bivvying, tenting, hammocking, on the water) - what the law says (Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Ireland, EU, waterways) - how many of the largest landowners in the UK are actively encouraging wild camping - getting started (vital equipment, where to go, when to go, safety) - drinking water and foraging for food The majority of the book features the best places to go in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, along with stories, tips, helpful maps and inspiring photos. The new edition includes a Foreword by Ed Stafford, as well as a completely new chapter introducing the exciting new English Coastal Path, opening 2020 after years of campaigning. This fully updated guide will give readers the knowledge and the inspiration to escape the noise, clutter and stress of day to day life and go wild.




Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland


Book Description

The cool temperate waters of the British and Irish seas contain an astonishing 6% of the world’s algal species, more than 600 different seaweeds, and yet most divers, snorkellers and rockpoolers can put names to only a handful of them. The first edition of Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland has proved invaluable to an enormous number of people, not just volunteer Seasearch divers and snorkellers, and this eagerly awaited second edition will no doubt prove to be equally as popular. The aim of this book is to introduce the reader to the wonderful marine environment around Britain and Ireland, and improve identification of the wealth of seaweeds so often overlooked. Features of the new edition include: ● Over 230 species described in detail with colour photographs, information on size, habitat and distribution maps ● Over 50 new species, many with information on how to identify to species level using microscopic features ● Key distinguishing features and areas of identity confusion highlighted ● Colour and form used to group species and aid identification using dichotomous keys ● Details of life histories and reproductive processes for the main seaweed groups ● Both scientific and English names used for species and groups ● A glossary of common and specialised terms




Wild Isles


Book Description

This beautifully illustrated overview of the wildlife of the British Isles showcases the diversity of our plant and animal life.




Wild Britain - Wild Ireland


Book Description

* Atmospheric mountain photography and panoramic fold-out pages* Special features on flora and fauna* Information and web addresses on protected areas and regions Britain and Ireland have so much to offer. The Gulf Stream is responsible for the development of many unique natural landscapes, and Britain's countless natural wonders have one thing in common: the color green. Whether in Ireland, Scotland, or England, whether on the Shetland Islands or on the Isle of Man - green prevails everywhere. The islands' vast moors, steep cliffs and gentle hills are not only the habitat of many animals, but also of abundant flora - prospering here in all its diversity. The rich fauna is comprised of birds of prey such as the red kite and the peregrine falcon, while sheep and ponies are found on the mainland, and seals and northern gannets in the coastal regions. UNESCO protected areas and national parks such as Wester Ross and Galloway, Snowdonia and Dartmoor, Copper Coast and Killarney give a glimpse of the unique beauty of the nature of the British Isles.




The Wild Places


Book Description

From the author of The Old Ways and Underland, an "eloquent (and compulsively readable) reminder that, though we're laying waste the world, nature still holds sway over much of the earth's surface." --Bill McKibben Winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature and a finalist for the Orion Book Award Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? That is the question that Robert Macfarlane poses to himself as he embarks on a series of breathtaking journeys through some of the archipelago's most remarkable landscapes. He climbs, walks, and swims by day and spends his nights sleeping on cliff-tops and in ancient meadows and wildwoods. With elegance and passion he entwines history, memory, and landscape in a bewitching evocation of wildness and its vital importance.







Edible and Medicinal Wild Plants of Britain and Ireland


Book Description

For over fifteen years I have experimented and explored the world of wild plants. Uncovering how our ancestors used plants to nourish and heal themselves. I've spent thousands of hours digging through scientific papers, read hundreds of books. Even gone so far as to be nomadic for over a year. During this time I followed the seasons and plants around the highways and byways of these isles. I have written this book to help you rediscover our forgotten plant heritage. To learn how to use wild plants as food and medicine. Knowledge that was once common to everyone. A NOTE ON PHOTOS Most wild flower books only provide one photo of each plant for identification. Then a little bit of botanical description. Usually using words that don't mean anything to anybody, unless you are a botany geek. To forage plants safely, you need a specialist plant identification book. Which is why in this book there are no pictures, nor a botanical profile. NICE THINGS PEOPLE HAVE PREVIOUSLY SAID Robin's infectious encyclopaedic enthusiasm is borne from complete commitment to his chosen field. - Michael Kusz You transported us to a whole new level of awareness of not only the plants we got to see, smell and taste, but also the relationship that is possible with our natural environment that most of us have lost over just a single generation. - Richard & Debbie Stansfield My love of the plants and my interaction with them was given a massive boost by your knowledge. - Pip Martin ABOUT THE AUTHOR Robin Harford is a plant-based forager, ethnobotanical researcher and wild food educator. He has published over 50 foraging guide books. He established his wild food foraging school in 2008, and his foraging courses were recently voted #1 in the country by BBC Countryfile. Robin is the creator of eatweeds.co.uk, which is listed in The Times Top 50 websites for food and drink. He has travelled extensively documenting and recording the traditional and local uses of wild food plants in indigenous cultures, and his work has taken him to Africa, India, SE Asia, Europe and the USA. Robin regularly appears on national and local radio and television. He has been recommended in BBC Good Food magazine, Sainsbury's magazine as well as in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph etc.




Wild Mull


Book Description

High above the mountaintops on the Isle of Mull, a huge bird is soaring. Its all-encompassing gaze records people in its Hebridean territory far below, but they are of no interest. The eagle is about its business: concentrating on the deer and fidgety hares out grazing in the morning sun, the urgent push of thermals beneath its wings, a threatening weather front way out at sea, and the restless chick back in its eyrie. This is Mull in its glory. This is what the excited, watching people have travelled so far to witness. They train their binoculars and admire, perhaps envy, the eagle with its vast freedom, knowing that such a self-willed being is part of another world – almost. This book guides the reader through that world. With superb illustrations and illuminating text, we are led to the wild side of Mull. Every facet of the island’s natural history is considered, its diverse species and many stories – past, present and future. Along the way we are reminded that wildness is not somehow separate from the human world but influenced, and shared, by nature and people together. Here is the tale of a precious and unique place, a seaborne landscape that displays an uncommon biodiversity and rare wildlife experiences, although today it also faces its greatest challenges. Most of all, this book is testimony to the power of wild places and the duty we have to learn from and protect them.