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Two British villages have been named the prettiest in the world

Experts listed spots in Yorkshire and the Cotswolds amongst Italian coastal towns and Hobbiton in New Zealand

Amy Houghton
Written by
Amy Houghton
Contributing writer
Arlington Row in Bibury, Cotswolds, England
Photograph: Shutterstock
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If you’ve ever tuned in to any episode from the many, many murder mystery series out there set in an English village, you’ll be well aware of their charms. The UK has some corners so aesthetic that they even make homicide look like a bit of quaint local drama. 

Okay, well, maybe not IRL. But we do have a bunch of very pretty villages dotted around the country. In fact, two of them have just been recognised among the most picturesque in the entire world.  

Experts at Faraway Furniture explored the most popular villages on Instagram to compile a list of the world’s prettiest. Once named the ‘most beautiful’ village in the country by artist William Morris, the charming Cotswolds village of Bibury landed the highest of any UK place at fourteenth. 

Bibury is home to the famous Arlington Row, a line of medieval buildings which were converted into weavers’ cottages in the seventeenth century and are now some of the UK’s most photographed houses. The village also happens to be less than a two hours’ drive from central London

Seaside destination Staithes in North Yorkshire also featured in the list. Coming seventeenth in the world, Staithes sits on a hillside overlooking the Yorkshire coast and was once one of the North East’s largest fishing ports. Like every great village, it features winding cobbled streets and enchanting cottages, as well as a small beach and clifftop paths. 

And those two UK villages are in very impressive company. The likes of Burano and Cinque Terre in Italy and Hobbiton in New Zealand featured elsewhere in the list. 

Here’s the full list of the world’s most Instagrammable villages, according to Faraway Furniture. 

  1. Cinque Terre, Italy
  2. Reine, Norway
  3. Oia, Greece
  4. Burano, Italy
  5. Colmar, France
  6. Hallstatt, Austria
  7. Alberobello, Italy
  8. Hobbiton, New Zealand
  9. Shirakawa-go, Japan
  10. Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia
  11. Wegen, Switzerland
  12. Ait Benhaddou, Morocco
  13. Popeye Village, Malta
  14. Bibury, England
  15. Ortahisar, Turkey
  16. Fenghuang Ancient Town, China
  17. Staithes, England
  18. Júzcar, Spain
  19. Palangan, Iran
  20. Simiane-la-Rotonde, France

Did you see that this is the full list of all the Wilko stores closing for good? 

Plus: the birthplace of the Brontë sisters could soon be opening to the public.

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