The Fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire are the flattest and lowest parts of Britain (Radek Sturgolewski/Shutterstock)
Looking for some Great British adventure inspiration? You're in the right place. Here you'll get an independent, ad-free lowdown on Britain's top 50 adventure locations - the online yin to the paper yang of our Joyously Busy Great British Adventure Map.
Why Go To The Fens?
A leftfield selection, some might say, for Britain's top 50 adventure locations. And they'd be right! Just a couple of things you can do in the Fens that you can't do anywhere else..
Visit the flattest and lowest part of Britain - prepare to have your mind blown by a vast land of parallel lines
Get some two-wheeled joy on the wonderful network of lanes that are perfect for cycling.
Want to find out more? Read on for great photos, articles, videos, top tips and other content to fire up your adventure appetite. Got a question? Ask away.
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Flat and often unsung, the Fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire are historically and geographically significant (once an enormous bog, now dry). A vast land of parallel lines, they're *Holme* to Britain's lowest point, a whopping 2.75 metres below sea level, host all manner of hill-avoiding wildlife, and also happen to have a wonderful network of lanes that are perfect for cycling.
The Fens, England - a marshy region, artificially drained and transformed into arable farming areas, don't you know? (Radek Sturgolewski/Shutterstock)
“Weirder than any other landscape.”
The Fens don't really have a single stand-out 'essential journey'. Any visit to or through the Fens has that otherworldly feel to it, and that's good enough for us.
“Any fool can appreciate the hills but only a person of discerning can appreciate the fens.”
Getting To The Fens, Maps & Guides
Getting there: 1.5 hrs by car from London.
Travel times from where you are: See the Fens on Google Maps.
Maps: Find the right Ordnance Survey maps and / or get a month's free subscription to their excellent OS Maps app.
Guidebooks: As the Fens straddle counties (Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire) and regions (East Anglia and the Midlands) there doesn't seem to be a dedicated guidebook for the area - the closest is the Wild Guide to London and the South East, but it doesn't stretch as far north as the Lincolnshire Fens.
Walking route guidance: Try the Fen Rivers Way.
Tourist board: Fens For The Future / Visit Cambridgeshire.
Even More Fens Adventure Inspiration
This article from the Guardian does a good job of explaining the otherworldly appeal of the Fens, and another covers old-school ice skating on the Fens when they freeze over.
A guide to cycling in the Fens, and here are the Fens in a bigger list of Britain's best road cycling locations from Cycling Weekly.
The Inland Waterways Association have this comprehensive overview of the Fens' waterways. Here's a little more info from Visit Cambridge, and here's a book review in the Telegraph that brings the Fens' bleak beauty to life.
Read all about the Great Fen Project here.
Here's the Royal Geographical Society's Discovering Britain page on the Fens.
What Next?
Click here to see 49 other Great British adventure locations and tell us about your adventures, plans and suggestions for these pages.
Britain's Best Outdoorsy Bits... Mapped!
Liking what you see, but fancy keeping it old school with an actual paper map? Our Joyously Busy Great British Adventure Map features all of Britain's best outdoorsy bits (including the Top 50), plus some enjoyably random and vaguely useful stuff too. Available either as a 2-sided fold-out map or a framed wall map (office furniture and fake plants not included).
