My piece of Heaven

Eleven friends of COUNTRY LIFE pen a love letter to their small, yet oh so distinctive patches of the British Isles, from the big skies of the north Norfolk coast to the street art of Belfast, from the glens of Perthshire to the Exe estuary in Devon via the apple orchards of Herefordshire

- Kate Green and Paula Lester

The Vale of Belvoir by Lady Violet Manners

THERE is a moment, as the sun begins to slip below the ridgeline, when the Vale of Belvoir becomes something truly magical. The warm light casts long shadows across the folds of pasture and ancient hedgerows. The castle rises above it all like a sentinel of time, watching over a landscape that has changed remarkably little for centuries. It is a moment that still stops me in my tracks—and one that reminds me why I will always call this pocket of England home.

The Vale of Belvoir is not a place of grand gestures or attention-seeking landscapes. It is gentle, quietly poetic and layered with history. You don't need to look far to find Roman roads, medieval field systems or Jacobean farmsteads. However, it is the land itself that steals your heart—soft, rolling hills that seem to breathe with the seasons; golden fields that stretch like a patchwork quilt across the horizon.

There is something immensely grounding about the rhythm of life here—the quiet surrounding Vale villages, the Sunday church bells, the familiar faces. The smallness of life in the Vale is its greatest luxury—a reminder that beauty often lies in the details, not the drama.