
Seven of the UK's most magical open-air cinemas
This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenue
Each summer, this hotel puts up a 13ft cinema screen in its garden on the banks of the River Tay, showing films from now until mid-August (£10). Deckchairs are provided alongside Bluetooth headphones. The menu offers pizzas cooked to order, including one with local venison, and loaded fries. Upcoming films include Life of Pi, Being John Malkovich, Inside Out and When Harry Met Sally, while the gentle murmur of the river adds its own soundtrack. Films are open to all and, should you wish to stay, there are seven bedrooms, all decorated with a pleasing Scandi-Scottish charm. Details B&B doubles from £210 (thetaybank.co.uk)
Many National Trust properties have expansive lawns that lend themselves to open-air events. The Vyne, a 16th-century mansion near Basingstoke, complete with a Tudor chapel, classical porticos and a long gallery, is one of them. This summer, there will be film screenings between July 31 and August 4, including Dirty Dancing, Bridget Jones's Diary and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and guests are welcome to bring their own picnics and chairs (£17; nationaltrust.org.uk). Very nearly as venerable as the Vyne, the Tylney Hall hotel is a 20-minute drive away and has indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts and a wood-panelled restaurant serving traditional, seasonal British food.Details B&B doubles from £235 (tylneyhall.co.uk)
The 19th-century Grosvenor Park, in the centre of Chester, features an open-air cinema each summer. The roster of films includes Pretty Woman, Mamma Mia!, True Romance and Wicked and tickets include Bluetooth headphones (£13.50; storyhouse.com). You can bring your own seating or pay extra for a deckchair. Be savvy and pre-order a wood-fired pizza and retire later to the Boathouse and Riverside Rooms, just next to the park and on the River Dee. It's a great base for exploring Chester's Roman remains and medieval architecture.Details B&B doubles from £154 (theboathousechester.co.uk)
As part of Bradford's City of Culture programming this year, the events organisation Rumpus is organising a series of outdoor screenings. On August 22 and 23, the 1930s Ilkley Lido will be the backdrop to Everybody's Talking about Jamie and Sexy Beast, while Thornton Viaduct will show Grand Budapest Hotel on September 13, all with surprise immersive elements that aim to enhance the experience (£10; bradford2025.co.uk). A ten-minute drive away from the lido in the village of Ben Rhydding, the Wheatley Arms is a pleasant spot to retreat to afterwards.Details B&B doubles from £96 (wheatleyarms.co.uk)
• Revealed: 100 Best Places to Stay in the UK for 2025
Every August, Norwich's Cinema City — part of the Picturehouse group — puts on a series of outdoor screenings in the Plantation Gardens (£18.85; picturehouses.com). The gardens, with gothic follies and serpentine paths, were created in the 1850s from a disused quarry and are a short walk from the city centre. This year's plein-air offerings include the original pilot of Twin Peaks, and the Talking Heads concert Stop Making Sense as well as the outdoor cinema favourite Dirty Dancing. St Giles House, a family-run hotel only a ten-minute walk away, has recently expanded with a new restaurant and a small spa with five treatment rooms.Details B&B doubles from £155 (stgileshousenorwich.com)
Milford Haven's Torch Theatre runs its popular Sunset Cinema at several different venues each year but Cardigan's setting is particularly special. Next to the River Teifi, Cardigan Castle is a melange of medieval ruins, Georgian architecture and a Victorian garden. This August, Torch's programme includes Toy Story, Top Gun and Elvis (£12; torchtheatre.ticketsolve.com) shown on a big screen on a lawn within the castle grounds. Ticket holders can bring their own picnic blankets and food. The 12-bedroom Albion hotel, in a handsome stone former warehouse filled with traditional Welsh furnishings, is the coolest place to stay in town.Details B&B doubles from £185 (albionaberteifi.co.uk)
• 18 of the most beautiful places in England
Erudite offerings are matched by the brutalist surroundings of London's most famous post-war housing development at the Barbican's outdoor film festival, running from August 20-31. Surrounded by the city's tower blocks, filmgoers can watch the likes of Palme d'Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives from Thailand and Wes Anderson's stop-go animation Fantastic Mr Fox in the Sculpture court (£18; barbican.org.uk). There are food trucks and drinks available from the Conservatory Bar. The newly opened Montcalm Brewery Hotel, in an 18th-century building that once belong to Whitbread, is just around the corner if you want to make a night of it.Details B&B doubles from £200 (montcalmcollection.com)
Have we missed your favourite? Please share your recommendations in the comments below
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
The unlikely film named as 2024's most complained about after rating change
Mary Poppins was the most complained about film of 2024, receiving 56 objections after its rating was changed. The 1964 musical's classification was updated from a U to a PG by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The rating change was prompted by the use of the word 'hottentots' twice by the character Admiral Boom. The BBFC justified the PG rating by stating the discriminatory term was neither criticised nor condemned, posing a risk for young viewers. Other films like The Abyss, Dune: Part Two, and Saltburn also received complaints regarding their classifications in 2024.


Daily Mail
38 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
I built some of the UK's most popular roller coasters - here's the biggest mistake people make on rides
As millions of Brits flock to the nation's top theme parks over the summer, Britain's 'Rollercoaster King' has revealed the top mistake parkgoers make on rides. John Burton, Senior Creative Lead at Merlin Magic Making, is the award-winning designer behind some of the UK's most popular rides, including Alton Tower's Nemesis Reborn and Toxicator, along with Alton Manor's The Curse. The mastermind was recently crowned Alumnus of the Year by Birmingham City University for his phenomenal contribution to thrill-seeking. Now, the creative force has shared his expert insights to help thrill seekers maximise their visit to amusement parks - while warning of the one mistake that could ruin a visitor's experience. John's golden rule for any rider, whether they're an adrenaline junkie or more prone to nerves, is to keep their eyes open at all times. He said: 'The one thing you should never do is close your eyes. By doing that you're missing half the experience - all the incredible theming, the storytelling, and the artistry that is built into every ride. 'People think it helps calm their nerves, but it actually makes the whole experience worse. You lose all visual context, your brain can't process what's coming, which amplifies the fear.' In terms of nerves, John advised: 'On high-G rides like Nemesis Reborn, to prevent light-headedness, try tensing your calves and core like a fighter pilot to reduce blackout sensations - and remember to keep breathing.' According to John, there is a science and art to getting the best thrills at theme parks, and of the core elements is storytelling. He explained: 'The rides at Alton Towers are a magical combination of engineering and storytelling to create truly immersive worlds. 'So look up. Look around. Let yourself feel it. Rides and roller coasters are about surrendering to the moment - and the more you engage, the more thrilling it gets.' John also revealed that where people sit on rides can significantly impact their experience. On roller coasters such as Wicker Man, he advised sitting at the back for stronger airtime and a more intense pull as it glides over the hills, and on cinematic rides like Nemesis Reborn, he urged riders to sit in the front row to get the full, immersive view. In addition, John shared a key hack to avoid long queues at Alton Towers over the summer break. He urges parkgoers to head to the rides at the back of the park first, as most visitors tend to pile onto the first prominent rollercoaster near the entrance. Alton Towers is currently offering a deal that will guarantee families an extra day of fun for free this summer, which includes an overnight stay at the resort and full entry to the park on both days - giving guests the chance to double the adventure. Meanwhile, Blackpool Pleasure Beach has unveiled footage of its newest ride - which promises to be the 'tallest of its kind' in the UK and transform the resort's famous coastline. The park has released the first CGI video of Aviktas, a brand-new £8.72m pendulum ride set to open in 2026. Riders will fly on the towering 138ft gyro swing, alongside the popular Big One roller coaster and parallel to the coast, which is displayed in new footage created by the park's creative team. The ride will be the 'tallest of its kind' in the UK, surpassing the current leader, Drayton Manor's Maelstrom, which reaches approximately 74 feet in height.


Telegraph
5 hours ago
- Telegraph
Why on earth does J D Vance want to holiday in the Cotswolds?
In 1925, if Charles G Dawes, the US Republican vice-president and future ambassador to the United Kingdom, had taken his vacation in Britain, it is unlikely that the Cotswolds would have been on his itinerary. London, certainly, to meet the prime minister, Stanley Baldwin; and perhaps Scotland for the grouse shooting. But a century ago, the Cotswolds were a picturesque agrarian backwater. The novelist Nancy Mitford, who grew up by the Windrush valley, immortalised her childhood landscape in The Pursuit of Love as a place inhabited by backwoods peers and their gamekeepers, with fox hunting the only distraction from the prevailing rustic ennui. The pretty villages and rolling hills of the Cotswolds have captivated artists and writers, from William Morris and T S Eliot to Jilly Cooper's racy Rutshire chronicles and Armistead Maupin, whose most recent novel, Mona of the Manor, is a camp romp set in Gloucestershire. In summer the residents brace themselves for the coach parties that throng the quaint streets. But they are currently braced for sightings of a different sort of vehicle: the armoured SUVs of the vice-presidential security detail, escorting J D Vance and his family to their holiday home. The transformation of the Cotswolds from a beautiful and rather private swathe of middle English landscape to a hub of high-wattage celebrity and political power has been a gradual process, with dramatic effects. Resident celebs – invariably voluble about the charm of a simple, rustic life – include Kate Moss, David Beckham, Damien Hirst and Idris Elba. And the group of political and media figures known as the Chipping Norton set (whose supposed members deny that any such entity exists) includes the former prime minister, David Cameron (now Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton), the television presenter, farmer, shopkeeper and publican, Jeremy Clarkson, the News International executive, Rebekah Brooks and her husband, the racing columnist Charlie Brooks, the media executive Elisabeth Murdoch and her then husband, Matthew Freud, et al. The Spectator magazine reports that 'apparently senior British political figures, who have knowledge of the Cotswolds social scene' are helping with the Vance family's holiday arrangements. Where power congregates, so does the necessary infrastructure, and the Cotswolds is now lavishly supplied with facilities that might attract a US vice-president in search of some R&R: private members' clubs, each more exclusive than the last, pubs owned by celebs and an American-owned deli in Stow-on-the-Wold. Local estate agents report a surge in wealthy American clients seeking to settle permanently in the area. In the vanguard were the comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, who sought sanctuary in the UK after the election of President Trump. DeGeneres enthuses about their new life: 'Everything here is just better,' she told the broadcaster Richard Bacon. 'People are polite.' The Vance family will hope she is right about the politeness: their recent US vacations were bedevilled by protests, and there are rumours of 'resistance' in the Cotswolds. Meanwhile the Americanisation continues apace. All that is missing is a reality show, along the lines of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. But in Charlbury, preparations have begun for a pilot with a cast of unspeakably glossy and well-connected residents – rumoured working title, Ladies of the Cotswolds. What fun Nancy Mitford would have had with it all.