🌍 Escape to this country 🛤️

11 UK winter breaks to book in between the end of October and Feb

Sep 14, 2025

Welcome to BRiMM, the collective, journal and planet-positive shop that’s here to help you live a lower-impact life, without life feeling less

This picture was taken in the sunniest place in Britain

Before you delve into this week’s newsletter, here’s what’s going on in the world of BRiMM:

There are just a few tickets left for our Stitch & Bitch event on Tuesday 23 September, 6.30pm at The Meeting House in Peckham, London. Read on for an interview with our host, Orsola de Castro and get your tickets quick.
In a few weeks we’ll be off on our BRiMM + British Pasture Leather experiential Field Day programme, exploring regenerative agriculture and local food, and sitting down to a gorgeous lunch. Put Friday 10 October in your diaries and buy your tickets now.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff.

This week’s theme is… how to escape IN the UK 🌠
We’re a fortnight into the routine of September. Everyone’s back in the office, term time has started and the nights are noticeably getting darker (hands up who had the curtains closed before 8pm this week 🖐️). The summer getaway you literally just got back from already seems like a distant memory, but it was definitely still August just two weeks ago. We double-checked.

This obviously means that we’re already thinking about the next short break we’re going to take. We all need something to look forward to, right? And since low-impact holidays are high on the BRiMM wish list, we thought we’d use this newsletter to look at escapes you can book in the UK that include the kind of brain stimulation you need to really switch off from work and everyday life. Yes, even through winter.

A recent study found that breaks involving physical activity have a bigger positive impact than those featuring passive pursuits, such as lying on a faraway beach in the sun – and the British Isles are absolutely packed full of adventurous things to do that can be experienced year-round, from cycling to coasteering. If ‘active’ isn’t your thing on holiday (no judgement here), we’re also a cultural lot, so we’ve tried to find something to float everyone’s boat. Happy travels.

Visit one of the sunniest places in Britain. Check out this list from the Met Office revealing the 11 locations with officially the most sunshine hours per year.
Celebrate the arrival of winter migrating birds with a birdwatching holiday in Norfolk
Bristol is one of the most exciting cities in the UK when it comes to food. Book a culinary break with an eating tour (or two) and dig into some top fare.
Nothing says escaping the rat race like an adventure holiday. Wilderness England specialises in hiking, cycling, heritage, sailing and wildlife tours. See also Wilderness Scotland and Wilderness Ireland.
From dancing with swords to orchard wassailing, time a trip to an English village with one of the many weird and wonderful traditional English winter festivals held during the darker months.
Stay in a village with an award-winning pub, fish and chip shop and grocery store, all of which serve and sell goods produced by the local organically managed natural farm. The Collective at Woolsery, North Devon, is an off-season delight.
Make the most of the winter solstice (21 Dec) with a yoga retreat – complete with forest bathing, sound baths and cacao and fire ceremonies – in the Forest of Bowland with the Forestry Commission.
Go ‘set-jetting’ by visiting Castle Combe in Wiltshire. This picture-perfect Cotswolds town has been used as the location for War Horse, Downtown and Bridgerton, and looks especially pretty with a dusting of snow.
Do some stargazing at a Dark Skies festival. Organised around the best time to look to the heavens, they have extra activities like guided night walks and astronomy suppers. Held in Exmoor, Yorkshire and Cumbria all through the winter.
Britain’s not-so-best-kept secret Margate makes an ideal half-term break. Parents will love pubs like The Shakespeare (low-fi vibes) and The Last Light (low-lit and lively); meanwhile, treat the little ones to Quex Park’s Halloween Trail, which conjures just the right kind of mischief.
Swim with seals in a Scottish lagoon. Take a day-long boat tour with Basking Shark Scotland, guided by a marine biologist, to the Sound of Mull, a beautiful Hebridean marine paradise. (Tours run until the end of October.)

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: THIS WEEK

We’re diving back into the discussion sparked by our recent screening of the Laura Dern and Donald Glover-narrated regen-doc, Common Ground. Our influential panel included environmental innovator Mark Shayler, founder of fashion label AKYN Amy Powney (more on her below), sustainable garden designer Sarah Alun-Jones and Citizens of Soil’s Natalie Williams. You can now find the talk here as an epic Q&A, covering everything from prisons to polyester and all the promise and often harsh reality of trying to forge a more regenerative path today. It’s a fascinating read.

→ DISCOVER MORE

Also over on our Journal, our beauty guru Sam Zimmerman reveals the zero-waste bathroom products that really work.

→ READ MORE

Our Kitchen Cleaning Reset Boxes
Say goodbye to harsh chemicals and disposable plastic – and hello to fresh, spa‑like vibes in your kitchen. Every product in the Kitchen Cleaning Reset Box has been carefully chosen to ensure that each is a non-toxic, plant-powered essential. Together they will help transform your cleaning routine into something beautiful, planet-positive and effective – something to look forward to, even.

Read more about what’s inside our Kitchen Cleaning Reset Box and why we chose the products on the BRiMM Journal.

→ SEE MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Orsola de Castro
This week we were delighted to catch up with Orsola de Castro, the trailblazing fashion disruptor who co-founded Fashion Revolution and is hosting our Stitch and Bitch event later this month.

What would you LOVE to talk about at our Stitch & Bitch event?
“About repairs and reparations. About how in a sea of waste, repairing our clothes prevents them being thrown onto another woman’s land. About mother mending, stitches of wisdom and how taking good care of one’s clothes is like taking good care of oneself.”

What are the hot topics in the world of mending right now?
“Breaking the stigma: how mending can be seen as the slogan for future generations. One visible repair is like a tattoo of our intentions. A declaration of love, for our clothes, for the people who made them, and for the Earth that we all share.”

What's the bitchiest stitch?!
“The prick that stabs at the status quo.”

Can an item of clothing ever be ‘past rescuing’?
“Never. I wear broken clothes. Embracing the fray - a tear like an embroidery, threadbare fabric exposing its weave, its essence. A dropped hemline making a straight line become an undulating lullaby. A breakage opening up a passage from my skin to the rest of the world. I am hole.”

Get your Stitch and Bitch tickets now, then check out our latest full Q&A with interior designer, upholsterer and broadcaster Micaela Sharp.

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Charlotte is fascinated by the fact that oak trees are producing more acorns this year - and they got some help from mushrooms, too

James is digging the pioneering new collab between BRiMM founder member Amy Powney and Finisterre, “bringing you closer to the sea, no matter where you are“

There’s a rising trend for chaos gardening that Sam can’t wait to try - because messy nature is beautiful

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

NO NASTIES
If you’re going on a winter break in the UK, you *may* need a decent waterproof. Paramo’s outdoor gear is PFC-free - so no nasty forever chemicals are involved in the waterproofing - and they offer a repair and recycling service, too.
→ GET YOUR COAT

NEARBY THE WAY
While you’re on the road (or the rail- or waterways) it's always great to discover local producers to support in the area you’re staying. Whether you’re looking for food and drink or homeware and fashion, we love Produced Nearby, a country-wide online directory to help you do just that.
→ SHOP LOCAL

GOING SWIMMINGLY
The sea in the UK is at its warmest in September and October, so now is a great time to finally take up that year-round wild swimming you’ve been meaning to try. Rapanui clothing asked some experienced dippers around the UK for their favourite swimming spots, and came up with this handy round-up, featuring coastal, lake and river dips.
→ DIP IN

WARM AUBERGINE AND BROCCOLI SALAD

This is one of Hannah’s all-time favourite salads, from the book A Lot On Her Plate by food writer Rosie Birkett. The warm roasted aubergine and broccoli feel just right for this time of year, and the tangy dressing features honey, lemon, tabasco and anchovies. Irresistible.

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC FOR MERCURY RISERS

The Mercury Music Prize shortlist was announced this week, so here’s a tune from each of the 12 albums that made it, each of which is packed full of uplifting songs. We’ve taken care to ease you into this one with some Sunday morning-appropriate laid-back vibes, before picking up the pace to get you moving for the remainder of the weekend.

Half of you knew the correct answer to last week’s poll - it was indeed the chemist Paul Palmer who first coined the phrase zero waste in the 1970s

The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.

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