At the heart of England’s most loved and visited places are Commons.

There’s over a million hectares – that’s over 247 million football pitches – of common land in England.

These spaces are found in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding National Beauty across the country.

Upland commons are free for everyone to access and enjoy and some of the best places to experience them and their iconic views are on the hills and moors of Devon, Shropshire Hills, the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales.

Upland commons aren’t just picture perfect either. They bring a whole range of other benefits. Some of these are easy to spot and some of which can take you a little more time to notice.

There are tens of millions of day trips to common land each year and visitors make a significant contribution to the rural economy through tourism.

Planning a trip to Devon, Shropshire Hills, the Lake District or the Yorkshire Dales? Here’s just a few ideas on how you can enjoy your day and notice why these special places are so important to some of the challenges we face in the 21st century.

Step out on foot onto upland commons and you’ll experience beautiful landscapes. You’ll be rewarded with some of the most iconic views in the country. Try a day in the mountains on Catbells in the Lake District or Brant Fell in the Howgills.

Look out for sources of water. Paddling in a river, stream or a waterfall isn’t just good fun. This could be your future drinking water ¬– 10% of Britain’s water supply comes from upland commons.

There are 3,000 scheduled ancient monuments protected on British commons. They include stone circles, standing stones and roman camps. Spend your day in the outdoors, learning about history.

Commons support a greater diversity of wildlife than any other type of farmland. Try bird spotting – you’ll find the Dartford warbler in the south of the UK and the curlew in the Lakes and the Dales.

You’ll sometimes need more of a trained eye to spot these, but commons are filled with healthy peat bogs. These are areas of soil that are wet and they are covered in plants that rot down to form new peat. They trap millions of tonnes of carbon. They help us tackle climate change.

Many of the UK’s heritage breeds are closely associated with common land. You’ll get up close to different breeds of sheep, ponies and cattle.Each flock on the commons has an area of land where they stay without fencing, this is known as a ‘heaf’, ‘heft’ or ‘lear’. This way of shared land management is called commoning and has protected some of the UK’s most spectacular landscapes for a thousand years.