If you’re after some peace and quiet away from city buzz and throngs of tourists, the countryside seems like the obvious place to go. But you should pick your destination wisely. These days, lots of Britain’s remote towns and villages have become much, much busier thanks to social media and starring roles on the silver screen. Places like Bampton in Oxfordshire is now a hotspot for Downton Abbey fans while Castle Combe in the Cotswolds has long been teeming with day-trippers after featuring in the likes of War Horse and Dr Dolittle.
So, to get an proper British village experience, stop following the crowd and go somewhere that puts locals before holidaymakers. Take it from the Telegraph – there are plenty of them. The paper has just revealed its selection of the 30 best British villages ‘untouched by mass tourism’. It broke down the list by region, featuring peaceful rural pockets along the north coast of Scotland all the way down to the UK’s southernmost point.
Up north, it chose the likes of Saltaire, an immaculately preserved model village and ‘extraordinary suburb north of Bradford’, Cumbria’s foodie haven Cartmel, and the pretty coastal outpost of Alnmouth.
Down in the southwest of England, charming chocolate box spots like Mells in Somerset, which is ‘tucked in tantalising Mendips countryside and home to an achingly-cool old pub’, and Britain’s most southerly village of Lizard in Cornwall which is ‘full of small pleasures and treasures’. Then to the east, there’s Alfriston, a village ‘even Disney couldn’t create’, and Bosham, which offers a ‘sheer overload of beauty’.
In Wales, the tiny Pembrokeshire village of Solva got a nod for its ‘flower-draped, stone cottages in bright ice-cream pastels and deep, fjord-like harbour’. And in Scotland, the Telegraph recommended heading to St Monans in Fife, which ‘proudly retains its fishing fleet and smokehouse’.
The UK’s greatest villages in 2025, according to the Telegraph
- Saltaire, West Yorkshire
- Hutton-le-Hole, North Yorkshire
- Dent, Cumbria
- Alnmouth, Northumberland
- Cartmel, Cumbria
- Mells, Somerset
- Cranborne, Dorset
- Lustleigh, Devon
- Shaldon, Devon
- Lizard, Cornwall
- Laxfield, Suffolk
- Great Massingham, Norfolk
- Wing, Rutland
- Ombersley, Worcestershire
- Broadway, Worcestershire
- Wootton, Oxfordshire
- Alfriston, East Sussex
- Ditchling, East Sussex
- Bosham, West Sussex
- Dedham, Essex
- Chilham, Kent
- Hambleden, Buckinghamshire
- Sonning, Berkshire
- Solva, Pembrokeshire
- Laugharne, Carmarthenshire
- Aberffraw, Anglesey
- Beddgelert, Gwynedd
- Tobermory, Isle of Mull
- Inverie, Highland
- St Monans, Fife
You can find the Telegraph’s full list in the original article here.
Still looking for the UK’s most splendid places in 2025? The Sunday Times recently published its list of the nation’s top 72 places to live, seven of which were in London and a further 11 were near the capital.
It’s official: two UK destinations are in the top 10 most beautiful places in the world.
Plus: Two legendary British hiking trails have been named the best in Europe.
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