Northumberland beauty spot ranked among UK's best-kept secrets

As many families choose staycations this year, Miller Homes has revealed the top 10 hidden gems in the UK’s national parks, to explore Britain with your loved ones without having crowds of people around.
College Valley in the Northumberland National Park. Picture by Jane Coltman College Valley in the Northumberland National Park. Picture by Jane Coltman
College Valley in the Northumberland National Park. Picture by Jane Coltman

The National Park: Hidden Gems study analysed more than 2,200,000 Instagram location tags in the ten national parks.

It took the places which had a low number of tags on Instagram and compared this with the number of five-star reviews on TripAdvisor and Google Reviews, to reveal the top-secret beauty spots in the UK.

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Uath Lochan Lake in Cairngorms National Park took the top spot, with just 375 Instagram posts and 144 reviews, but a whopping 86.81% five-star rating.

College Valley in Northumberland National Park came second with 792 Instagram location tags, 43 reviews and an impressive 86.05% five-star reviews.

Tourists have named these hidden spots as ‘magical’, ‘bucket list worthy’ and ‘superb’ on TripAdvisor reviews.

Popular spots such as Lake Windermere in Lake District and Seven Sisters in South Downs had 188,000 and 165,000 Instagram location tags respectively.

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Aisling Ramshaw, regional sales director at Miller Homes, said: “With the popularity of staycations, we expect huge numbers of families and friends to be exploring the UK’s national parks this year and beyond – after all, they are a fantastic example of the beauty which Britain has to offer not far from home.

“However, with so many people staying at home, popular walking and climbing spots in well-known locations are much busier than usual, particularly during peak holiday seasons right across the year.

“Most tourists tag the locations they go to visit on Instagram, and while these spots in our Hidden Gems index have thousands of fewer posts than many popular areas, they all have exceptional ratings. This shows that when people do visit them, they have a fantastic time in an area which looks like it’s straight out of a painting and not quite so busy!”

The top 10:

Uath Lochan Lake, Cairngorms

College Valley, Northumberland

Gaping Gill, Yorkshire Dales

Angletarn Pikes, Lake District

Skirrid Mountain, Brecon Beacons

Muir of Dinnet, Cairngorms

Denny Wood, New Forest

Ravenscar, North York Moors

Stackpole Quay, Pembrokeshire

Grimspound, Dartmoor

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