40 joyful things to look forward to in 2025
2025 is firmly in full swing and it's a big year at Country Living as we celebrate our 40th birthday.
To mark this milestone, we've rounded up 40 of the best, most exciting and joyful things to look forward to in the year ahead – diaries at the ready.
From new television shows to countryside events, and even celestial happenings for budding stargazers, here's our pick of things to spark joy in the coming months. Plus five special Country Living celebrity friends tell us what they are looking forward to doing in 2025...
40 things to look forward to in 2025
1.Country Living's birthday
Hip hip hooray, Country Living is turning 40! Keep your eyes peeled for special features in the magazine and celebrations throughout the year, such as exclusive members’ events with our editors at venues including another visit to Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in spring – we've also collaborated with Le Manoir and chef Raymond Blanc on an exclusive Plot to Plate series.
2. 350 years of Greenwich Royal Observatory
The Greenwich Royal Observatory toasts 350 years since it was founded by Charles II. Tour the oldest of its buildings, the Sir Christopher Wren-designed Flamsteed House, to explore its history. Watch the red Time Ball above the roof drop every day at 1pm – as it has done since 1833 – and see the apartments where Astronomers Royal have lived since John Flamsteed, the first to hold this title in 1675.
3. Soil exhibition
Head to Somerset House for SOIL, an exhibition uniting artists and thinkers to celebrate this secret ecosystem under our feet (23 January-13 April). Highlights include a four-metre-high photograph of hidden roots by National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson.
4. Celebrity Bear Hunt
Fancy being dropped into a Costa Rican jungle, putting your survival skills to the test and becoming “prey” for Bear Grylls? Us neither, but celebrities including Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Boris Becker and Shirley Ballas are doing just that in the name of entertainment in the new Netflix series Celebrity Bear Hunt, out in February.
5. Kew Orchid Festival
Kew Gardens’ colourful orchid festival returns to its historic greenhouse from 1 February-2 March, and this year celebrates the spectacular flora and fauna of Peru, home to more than 3,000 varieties of orchid. Expect showstopping horticultural displays depicting everything from alpacas to flamingos.
6. Miss Austen on TV
A new BBC adaption of Gill Hornby’s novel Miss Austen hits the small screen from early February. It explores the bond between Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, and the mystery of why she asked Cassandra to destroy her private correspondence after her death. Starring Keeley Hawes and shot in sweeping countryside locations, this promises to be a treat for winter evenings.
7. Somerset's Farm Bus
Field-to-fork food destination The Pony in Chew Valley is launching the UK’s first Farm Bus, a vintage double-decker bus-turned-mobile farm that will travel around communities and schools hosting educational workshops and demonstrations. Join one of its monthly fundraising dinners, where guest chefs collaborate with The Pony’s co-founder Josh Eggleton to create a six-course meal (£130, including a drink). Angela Hartnett hosts on 4 February.
8. Jonathan Bailey on stage
Anticipation is mounting for Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey’s turn in Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Bridge Theatre (10 February-10 May), directed by Nicholas Hytner.
9. Stargazing
“A twinkling night sky is one of nature’s most mesmerising displays and our unlit national parks are a stargazer’s paradise. Spring 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of both the Yorkshire Dales’ and North York Moors’ Dark Skies Festivals (14 February-2 March), but you can enjoy dazzlingly constellations any time of year at one of the UK’s Dark Sky Discovery Sites.” – Sally Coulthard, author and Country Living columnist
10. Access For All poetry
Country Living’s Access for All ambassador Bethany Handley’s debut poetry collection, Cling Film, is released on 24 February (Seren, £6). The poems invite readers to travel in Bethany’s skin as a young disabled woman. Listen Bethany read a poem she wrote especially for Country Living...
11. New nature books
Three bestselling nature writers have new books coming out this year: John Lewis-Stempel’s The Curious Life of the Cuckoo (6 March, Doubleday, £9.99); Bird Lore by CL columnist Sally Coulthard (24 April, Quadrille, £15), where she explores the folklore and symbolism behind 50 different species; and Robert Macfarlane’s Is a River Alive? (1 May, Penguin, £25), which casts rivers as living beings.
12. Lambing
“Spring is my favourite time on the farm and the big event for us at Cotswold Farm Park is lambing. The gestation period of a sheep is about 145 days, so we plan the timing with military precision to ensure we have lambs from February to Easter. For visitors, watching new life come into the world is a magical moment.” – Adam Henson, BBC Countryfile presenter and farmer
Country Living is also hosting a trip to the Cotswolds with Adam Henson.
13. Elizabeth Fritsch exhibition
Discover more than 100 works by pioneering ceramicist Elizabeth Fritsch – many from her rarely seen private collection – at the Hepworth Wakefield (opens 8 March).
14. Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style
BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee expert and fashion historian Amber Butchart explores our love affair with water over the past 100 years in her new exhibition Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style (28 March-17 August) at The Design Museum. Discover more in our interview with Amber in the March issue of Country Living, on sale throughout February.
15. The Salt Path film
Raynor Winn’s story of walking the South West Coast Path with her terminally ill husband Moth became a bestseller in 2018. Now, The Salt Path has been made into a film with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, due out in April.
16. Wild Uplands
2025 is a big year for Bradford as it takes up the mantle of UK City of Culture. Up on the moors above nearby Haworth, deep in Brontë country, discover Wild Uplands (May-October), an open-air gallery with four new commissions to be announced in the spring. There will also be an interactive sound walk created in collaboration with Opera North.
17. VE Day
Join a shared moment of celebration to mark 80 years since VE Day on 8 May. Four pipers will play a new work, Celebratum by Stuart Liddell, from the highest peaks of each UK nation at noon, local communities will throw street parties and beacons will be lit around the country at 9.30pm.
18. Emma Bridgewater's anniversary
Like us, Emma Bridgewater celebrates its 40th anniversary this year – the perfect excuse to tour the Emma Bridgewater factory in Stoke-on-Trent and try your hand at decorating a piece. Stay tuned for events and special collections throughout the year.
19. Country Living pavilions
Shop from some of our favourite artisans and small businesses at select countryside events this year. We’ll be bringing the Country Living shopping pavilion to Badminton Horse Trials (7-11 May), RHS Malvern Spring Festival (8-11 May) and Burghley Horse Trials (4-7 September), with more locations announced soon.
20. The Thursday Murder Club film
Partial to a murder mystery? Look out for a new Netflix adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, starring acting royalty including Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie and David Tennant – a killer cast…
21. Glyndebourne Festival
Glyndebourne’s summer festival (16 May-24 August) is always popular with music- and garden-lovers alike, thanks to its world-class operatic productions and 12 acres of stunning gardens, which you can explore and dine in during your visit. This year’s festival features its first-ever production of Wagner’s majestic final opera Parsifal.
22. North Coast 500's anniversary
This year is the tenth anniversary of the North Coast 500 (NC500), an iconic 516-mile road-trip route around the perimeter of the North Highlands encompassing stunning coastal scenery and rugged mountains. Highland Coast Hotels offers bespoke NC500 itineraries with accommodation and activities, as its seven hotels are dotted around the route, or try wild camping, which is legal throughout Scotland.
23. Goodwoof
A festival devoted to dogs… what’s not to love? Head to Goodwoof, at Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, on 17-18 May to meet more dogs than you can shake a stick at, and let your pooch try their paws at agility, fly-ball or even modelling. Dachshund lovers, rejoice, as this breed is being celebrated this year with a special parade.
24. RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Our interest is piqued for this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show (20-24 May). Presenter Monty Don will be designing his first show garden, The RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden, inspired by his love of dogs, promising a playful scheme with interactive elements such as a paddling stream, low grasses and a building for dogs to play in. “My dog Ned has been acting as a consultant,” says Monty. “Part of the garden is designed by dogs for dogs.” Meanwhile, in the Avanade Intelligent Garden, designers Tom Massey and Je Ahn will be using artificial intelligence to help them look after the plants. “The Intelligent Garden will have a ‘brain’,” Tom reveals. “Wireless sensors will be monitoring it and telling us when plants need water or a haircut.”
25. Hay Literary Festival
An annual highlight for any culture vulture, Hay Literary Festival (22 May-1 June) features talks from the biggest names in entertainment, live performances and comedy across eight stages. Themes this year include connection with nature, what it means to be human and intergenerational conversations.
26. Beavers at The Lost Gardens of Heligan
Hopes are high that this will be the year The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall is blessed with beaver kits, after four-year-old Byrti was introduced to resident female beavers at the end of 2024. Kits are typically born between April and July, so visit the gardens from May to September for the best chance to spot them.
27. Jane Austen's 250th anniversary
Don your bonnets for Jane Austen's 250th anniversary year. The Jane Austen Festival in Bath is organising two summer balls (31 May; 28 June), with pre-ball dance workshops, if you need to brush up on your quadrilles, as well as the annual festival (12-21 September), which features a Grand Regency Costumed Promenade around the Georgian city. No. 8 College Street in Winchester, where Austen spent her final weeks, also opens to the public for the first time from 4 June-30 August. The year’s celebrations culminate with the Yuletide Ball in Bath’s Pump Room (13 December).
28. Inverness Castle
Inverness Castle is being transformed from a prison and court into a new visitor experience, opening in mid-2025. It promises a taste of the Highlands, with a heritage map and tartan rooms, a panoramic roof terrace and a Highland music bar.
29. Paddington musical
Everyone’s favourite marmalade-guzzling bear is making his West End debut. Paddington: The Musical premieres in London this year, with music by Tom Fletcher of McFly.
30. Content Rising
“I’m looking forward to Content Rising on 12 June. It’s a gathering for environmental creatives and content producers at Kew Wakehurst in Sussex. I’m chairing a panel and get to pick young people to be part of it. We want to come up with ideas to bring fresh perspectives into the environmental sector.” – Chantelle Lindsey, CBeebies presenter and project co-ordinator at London Wildlife Trust
31. JMW Turner's anniversary
2025 marks 250 years since the birth of one of our greatest landscape painters, JMW Turner. Take in some of his masterpieces at Petworth House in West Sussex, where he was a frequent visitor, in an anniversary exhibition from 21 June-16 November. Or visit Tate Britain from 27 November to see landscapes by artistic rivals Turner and Constable brought together for the first time.
32. Garden photography at Stourhead
The International Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition comes to National Trust Stourhead, one of the country’s most spectacular landscaped gardens, for the first time from 27 June-27 August. View some of the competition’s best images free with entry to the house and gardens, including a selection of award-winning photographs from the Splendours of Stourhead category.
33. Hikes with history
“I’ve often done week-long hiking trips, where a company transfers your luggage for you, but this year I’d like to try something longer and spend two or three weeks walking from place to place, carrying everything I need in a backpack. I love the sound of the Coast-to-Coast path, from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay, or the Ridgeway trail, as I’m interested in archaeology and it encompasses prehistoric sites including Avebury henge.” – Martha Kearney, presenter of BBC Radio 4's This Natural Life
34. Country Living holidays
Join Country Living's The New Good Life columnist, bestselling author and smallholder Sally Coulthard to discover the inspiring landscapes, historic houses and wonderful wildlife of the North Yorkshire countryside. Weather permitting, the five-day Yorkshire tour will also include an exclusive visit to Sally’s farm. Tour dates are 29 June-3 July 2025, with a special discount for Country Living subscribers.
35. Immersive The Railway Children
The first modern railway, the Stockton and Darlington railway, opened 200 years ago, connecting communities and changing history. Railway 200 is celebrating this milestone with events throughout the year. Book tickets for an immersive stage adaptation of The Railway Children at Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (1 July-30 September).
36. Rock Oyster Festival
Rock Oyster festival (24-27 July), at Dinham House Estate in North Cornwall, combines food tastings and displays from star chefs and local producers with author talks, foraging walks and live music. This year’s line-up features UB40, Rag’n’Bone Man and chef Jack Stein.
37. Maison Dieu
Dover’s Maison Dieu, founded more than 800 years ago as somewhere for poor pilgrims to stay the night, opens this year after a £10m restoration. Stop for tea and cake in the new café in the Victorian jail cells or stay over in the Mayor’s Parlour, a new holiday let with The Landmark Trust.
38. Ardbeg House
Whisky-lovers, it’s time to plan a trip to Islay in the Inner Hebrides. Ardbeg Distillery – producers of fine, peated malt whisky on the island since 1798 – has bought and revamped a nearby hotel. Ardbeg House, opening in summer, will be a hub for islanders, tourists and whisky-enthusiasts, with a restaurant, luxurious bedrooms and a bar stocking an exclusive Ardbeg whisky.
39. Birdwatching
“In December, I’m visiting Serbia to witness the largest gathering of owls in the world. Every winter, thousands of long-eared owls roost along the northern Serbian border and I’ll be leading a tour there to marvel at this extraordinary spectacle.” – David Lindo, aka The Urban Birder, birdwatcher and broadcaster
David Lindo recently shared his top tips to help birds in cold weather with Country Living, so that you can support your local birdlife.
40. The Pig on the Farm
The Pig, a boutique chain of countryside hotels, is opening a new pad, The Pig on the Farm, near Stratford-upon-Avon at the end of 2025, just in time for guests to enjoy hearty winter meals and fireside coffees. Its interior designer Judy Hutson never fails to deliver eclectic schemes inspired by a building’s history and character – we unpacked The Pig's interior design with her recently – so this latest offering is sure to be a visual treat.
You Might Also Like
