One thing we’re not short of in England is ruined abbeys and monasteries – Henry VIII had a lot to answer for – and one that we visited a few years ago was Byland Abbey.
Byland Abbey is in North Yorkshire, a few miles due east of Ampleforth Abbey, and we visited on the same day in 2019. I say visited; we pulled up, I took a few photos, and then we carried on. Compared to other ruined abbeys like Fountains Abbey, there isn’t much of Byland Abbey left now. However, you can see from my photo that it would have a large rose window in its heyday, and this inspired the rose window at York Minster.
Nowadays, Byland Abbey is managed by English Heritage. It’s free to go in, and if you wanted you could probably spend 30 minutes to an hour there. In the summer months, you can see an interesting tiled floor in the old church.
Just be aware that there’s only a very small car park at the site, and bus services through Byland are very infrequent with just three per day from York. There’s no visitor centre, so if you need the toilet, you’ll need to ask nicely at the local pub.
The church is open every day, with regular services that are open to the public. There’s also a new visitor centre, which opened last year, giving the history of the site and offering some activities for children. There is, of course, a tea room.
Ampleforth Abbey Cider
Nowadays, Ampleforth Abbey is probably best known for its cider. The monks have been growing apples on site since the monastery was founded, and now has the largest commercial orchard in the north of England. The cider is produced on site, and is one of my favourites – the visitor centre includes a shop which sells it by the bottle. Alas, whilst tours of the cider mill and orchard used to be on offer, they’re not available at present.
If you’re not the cider-drinking type, non-alcoholic apple juice is also available, as is a beer that’s brewed over our neck of the woods by the Little Valley Brewery, near Hebden Bridge.
Whilst I wouldn’t make a special journey to Ampleforth Abbey, it’s worth stopping off if you’re passing.
On Easter Sunday, we went to the National Centre for Birds of Prey, in Helmsley, North Yorkshire. This was our third visit, and happened to be exactly six years to the day since our first.
The National Centre for Birds of Prey, as you would expect, has one of the UK’s largest collections of birds of prey, including many species owls, eagles, hawks, condors and vultures. Originally, there was a sister site in Gloucestershire, but this closed in 2022. Whilst there are plenty of birds of prey centres across the UK, there are far more on display here than I’ve seen anywhere else.
Birds of Prey shows
It’s all well and good looking at birds on their perches, or in their aviaries, but it’s always better to see them actually flying. There are three flying demonstrations each day (two in winter), each with five birds, and with a different set of birds in each show. Therefore, if you stay all day, you can see fifteen different birds flying. The staff who present the birds are all very knowledgable, not just about the species as a whole, but about the individual birds that they fly. Many of the birds have GPS trackers attached to them, so you can see how high they can fly, and it helps the staff retrieve them should they decide to fly off. Indeed, the last of the five birds in the morning session that we attended decided to have a little explore and didn’t come back until about half an hour after the show ended.
There are also wild red kites in the area, and one rudely interrupted a great horned owl’s flying time until it was offered some food to go away. Considering that as recently as 1990s, red kites were almost extinct in the UK, their reintroduction has been a success story. At the centre, you can see their close relatives, the black kite.
Experiences and events
It’s possible to spend a full day at the centre and see all three shows, but like most zoos, there are also experiences that you can pay extra for. These include hawk and owl walks for 1-2 hours.
The National Centre for Birds of Prey is located at Duncombe Park on the edge of Helmsley. Car parking is available on site, and it’s a 10-15 minute walk from the town centre. Buses from Scarborough and York call at Helmsley.
It’s open every day from early February until Christmas Eve. A Max Card discount is available.
Whilst there are no steps, there is some uneven ground and slopes around the centre. Disabled toilets are available, although I couldn’t find a Changing Places toilet anywhere nearby (the nearest being several miles away in Thirsk and Pickering).
Other things to see and do in Helmsley
Helmsley is a lovely little town, and it’s possible to make a weekend of it:
Duncombe Park has some gardens and shares a car park with the centre.
Helmsley Castle is an English Heritage property. Although mainly a ruin, thanks to the English Civil War, much of it still survives. We went in 2011.
Rievaulx Abbey is another ruined monastery (continuing a theme of Henry VIII having a lot to answer for) just outside the town.
Rievaulx Terrace, next door, is a National Trust property and home to some gardens.
The town itself is full of independent shops and is worth a visit on its own.
On Good Friday, we paid a visit to Knowsley Safari Park, on the eastern edge of Liverpool. This was actually our sixth visit, going back to 2018 when our nine-year-old was only two, but apparently I’ve never blogged about it before. We received gift tickets as Christmas presents from my parents.
Knowsley Safari Park is the only drive-through safari park in the North of England, and one of only six in the UK. You may know it from the Channel 4 series, the Secret Life of the Safari Park, which aired last year and is available to stream on 4oD, or whatever it’s changed its name to this week. For us in Sowerby Bridge, it’s only an hour’s drive in good traffic, despite being in Merseyside and on the other side of Manchester. However, its distance means that, in bad traffic, it can take much longer, and on a previous trip in 2019 I remember having to take a huge diversion via Preston and Burnley to get home, due to a closure on the M60.
The Safari Drive
Knowlsey Safari Park is split into two parts. As mentioned, there’s a drive-through safari, where you stay in your own car and drive (slowly) past lots of different animals. The drive is split into several zones to split the animals up, nominally by where you would find them in the wild. Expect to see lots of different species of deer and antelope, but there are also several rhinos and camels. There are also some wandering ostriches which like to peck at the rubber seals around your car windows.
Speaking of animals which like to damage cars, there’s a separate section for the baboons. The baboon colony at Knowsley is quite large, both in terms of space and population. There are warning signs as you drive in that your car will be damaged, and so there’s a ‘baboon bypass’ you can take if you’d rather not have a cheeky baboon steal your windscreen wipers. We drove through on our first visit in 2018, and ended up without some rubber windscreen seals that we weren’t able to replace. On subsequent visits, we’ve parked up next to the baboon enclosure for the schadenfreude of watching other peoples’ cars getting damaged.
The other animals that have their own section are the African Lions, mainly because they would probably hunt the other animals on the safari drive, given the chance. As well as cattle grids between each zone, you drive over electric webbing to enter the lion zone.
This time we also saw plenty of animals which weren’t part of Knowsley’s collection, that just happened too be there. There were plenty of pheasants, as well as partridges, oyster catchers and lapwings.
Foot Safari
The other part of Knowsley Safari Park is the ‘foot safari’, which is where you can park up your car and walk around, like in a traditional zoo. This is where you’ll see the Amur Tigers, tapir, giraffes, bears, sealions, bush dogs, meerkats and birds of prey. The foot safari used to be in a horseshoe shape, but since our last visit they’ve added a wildlife walk to make it a complete circuit. This also gives access to a new area with sheep and goats. We actually did this bit first, having arrived at opening time, and it was nice and peaceful.
Shows and displays
There are a couple of shows that are worth watching whilst you’re at the foot safari. The first is the sealion show, where they show the zoo’s sealions performing tricks. And the second is a birds of prey show, where they will fly several of their birds. The sealion show is indoors, and the birds of prey show is either indoors or outdoors depending on the weather. Though the weather on Good Friday wasn’t great (definitely worse than recently and Good Friday last year), the birds of prey show was outside. There are also various talks about the animals on the foot safari at set times.
The shows are all in the afternoons, as I think the expectation is that you’ll do the safari drive first and then the foot safari. We did it the other way around, as we expected the weather to be worse later on. Compared to other zoos, being able to use your car to drive through has its advantages in bad weather.
Most people will drive to Knowsley Safari Park, and it’s located just off the M57 (which itself isn’t far from the M62). But it is reachable by public transport – the nearest town is Prescot, and there’s a direct bus from the bus station there. You can also get the train to Prescot and walk – it takes about half an hour, apparently. If you want to do the safari drive, but haven’t arrived in a car, then you can take the Baboon Bus. You need to pre-book, and my experience you should book at least a couple of weeks in advance. It goes around the whole safari drive, including the baboon enclosure. It’s fitted with ropes and things for the baboons to climb on, and presumably they have access to a good supply of spare parts.
The foot safari is almost exclusively on one level, and where it isn’t, ramps are provided. There are two Changing Places toilets on site. Assistance dogs are only allowed outside of the animal areas, however; kennels are provided if needed.
Also, I feel it’s worth mentioning that the food at Knowsley Safari is above average, compared to most other zoos, and it’s not too over-priced. Sure, you can have the usual hotdogs and burgers, but I had quite a nice katsu curry when we went.
The weekend before Easter, we went to the National Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield. It’s a place we’ve been past a few times and so it’s been on our to-do list for a while, but this was our first visit.
The museum is housed in what was originally rare example of a combined police, ambulance and fire station, which opened in 1900. Over time, the various services outgrew the building and by the time it closed in 1965 only the police remained. The museum first opened in the year of my birth, 1984, originally just as fire service museum. It became a fire and police museum in 1991, and adopted its current name of the National Emergency Services Museum in 2015 following an extensive refurbishment.
Whilst the building is rather small, there’s a lot packed in there. It’s spread over three floors, with a yard at the back that houses a full-sized lifeboat and an Embrace ambulance. Inside, there are a number of police vehicles, ambulances and firefighting equipment, and you can also go inside some of the old police cells. Upstairs, there are galleries about the role of the emergency services on the front lines during the First World War, and a history of fire services in the UK.
Steamers and Scallywags
The principal reason that we went when we did was the Steamers and Scallywags event. Many of the staff were dressed up in Steampunk outfits, and there were market stalls in the stables. Upstairs, in the event space, you could try your hand at tea duelling, and there were regular performances from various Steampunk-adjacent acts over the weekend. We specifically went to see Madam Misfit, who we’ve seen before. This was our nine-year-old’s first time seeing her and she put on a great family-inclusive performance.
Elsewhere, there were animal handling sessions where Christine and our nine-year-old got to handle various snakes. I feel like there may be a pet snake in our future.
Commitments in the morning meant that we could only spend an afternoon at the National Emergency Services Museum, and as we prioritised the Steampunk activities, we didn’t get to see all of the rest of the museum. Thankfully, it’s one of those museums where your tickets can become an annual pass at no extra charge, and so we’ll be back soon.
Accessibility
The National Emergency Services Museum is located in Sheffield city centre, and so it’s quite easy to get to by public transport. Car parking is also available nearby – we parked at the NCP car park on Solly Street which is just around the corner.
Being a 125 year old building, accessibility isn’t perfect and there are some uneven surfaces on the ground floor. This is also reflected by a discounted entry fee for wheelchair users. However, there is a lift and most of the doorways are nice and wide to fit wheelchairs through. There is a disabled toilet on site. A sensory map and sensory backpacks are available.
NHS staff (like Christine) and people who work in the emergency services get discounted admission. The museum is normally open Wednesday to Sunday each week, and on Bank Holiday Mondays.
Last Sunday, we spent an afternoon at Fairburn Ings, an RSPB nature reserve that straddles the border between North and West Yorkshire.
Fairburn Ings was previously used for coal mining and industry, until the 1950s. It’s been left to return to nature, and is now a series of ponds, lakes and bogs, with the River Aire flowing past. These wetlands have attracted many birds, and it’s now run by the RSPB who have a series of hides across the site, and a visitor centre.
The visitor centre sits in the middle of the site. On our most recent visit, we walked around the western side of the site, in the hope of seeing some spoonbills. Alas, we didn’t, but we saw plenty of swans and cormorants, along with a black-necked grebe which isn’t native to Britain. We also saw a white egret.
There are a number of marked footpaths around the site, but many areas are kept out of bounds to give safe spaces to the wildlife. The visitor centre has binoculars for sale and to hire, and you can also hire a pond dipping kit for kids.
About 10 minutes drive away is another RSPB reserve at St Aidans – indeed, the two are jointly managed, and you could combine both as a single day out. We actually planned to go to St Aidans, but couldn’t get parked; it seemed that with the recent lovely weather, lots of other people had the same idea.
Accessibility
Fairburn Ings is near the village of Fairburn, which until 20 years ago was bisected by the A1 but is now a relatively quiet backwater. You probably want to drive there, as there aren’t any buses that get particularly near Fairburn Ings, and the nearest railway station is three miles away in Castleford.
There are two car parks at Fairburn Ings; the central one is run by the RSPB and is close to the visitor centre. There’s a separate one run by Leeds City Council at the western end. Both are pay and display, but otherwise entrance to Fairburn Ings is free.
Whilst there are few steps on the site, the ground is often uneven and there are some steep slopes. The visitor centre has a disabled toilet, but if you need a Changing Places toilet, you’ll need to go to the Junction 32 Outlet or Ferrybridge Motorway Services which are both a short drive away.
By the time you’re able to read this, Christine and I will be beginning our second day at Sci-Fi Weekender in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. This is the seventh consecutive SFW event that we’ve been to, and we’ve always enjoyed it.
This year will be different; it’ll be the first full SFW that we’ve been to where there’s no Professor Elemental, and it won’t be compered by Adam Washington, again for the first time in many years. But then there have been changes every year as the event changes and evolves.
We’ll be driving down again, and as with last year we’re offering friends a lift down so we’ll have a full car. It’s a rather long drive from West Yorkshire, mainly due to the A17 which we use to cut across Lincolnshire. It’s not a particularly fast nor scenic road, passing across mainly flat agricultural land. We call it the Sto Plains.
As for whether we decide to do cosplay this year – probably not. I’ll probably take my Steampunk gear but we don’t have any specific plans. In previous years, Christine has been Sadness from Inside Out, and a Feegle Kelda from Discworld. I think she just likes making herself blue.
Goddards is in York, and in fact is in walking distance of where I grew up. It was owned by the Terry family, they who introduced the world to the Chocolate Orange, and later on became the regional offices for the National Trust. I don’t remember it being open when I was younger, but nowadays you can pop in and see the gardens at weekends.
Rievaulx Terrace
Again, stretching the 90 minute journey time but it’s also closer to York, where my parents live. The village of Rievaulx is just outside the pretty little market town of Helmsley, and is better known as the home of Rievaulx Abbey. The Abbey is a ruin (yet again, Henry VIII had a lot to answer for) and managed by English Heritage. But above the abbey is Rievaulx Terrace, home to some formal gardens, woodlands, and a couple of folly temples. The National Trust suggest that you combine a trip with nearby Nunnington Hall if you want to make a day of it.
Beatles’ Childhood Homes
Going over to the West Coast, and you can visit the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Access is by guided tour only, and has to be booked in advance with pickup from either Liverpool South Parkway station, or Speke Hall. There are only four tours offered each day, but they’re available seven days a week, except in low season when the houses are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Whilst many Beatles tours in Liverpool will take you past these houses, this is the only way that you can actually go inside.
I feel like I may have been to Little Moreton Hall in the past – as with nearby Biddulph Grange, we have family nearby. But I certainly don’t remember anything about it, so if I have been, it must have been a very long time ago. It’s a similar-looking Tudor house to Speke Hall and has an actual moat. Over the years, various bits have been added to it, making it probably one of ‘wonkiest’ houses that you would ever see.
Rufford Old Hall
Another Tudor survivor is up near Ormskirk. Rufford Old Hallmay have been visited by William Shakespeare during his teenage years. As well as the house, there are large gardens and woodland to explore, and so if you’re not a member then it’s one of the higher-priced National Trust properties. But that should mean that there’s plenty to do there.
So there’s only six places that we haven’t yet been to within 90 minutes travelling time, and three of them have limited opening hours. That being said, I think we’ll make plans to go to Little Moreton Hall and Rufford Old Hall in the near future. As I mentioned at the start of the year, our summer holiday this year will be in North Wales, and there’s no shortage of National Trust properties up there either.
Last weekend, I took our nine-year-old to the Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, near Leeds. We’ve been a couple of times before, and it’s a nice little museum to visit for half a day. It’s also recently been reprieved from closure, but in the long term it needs more people visiting it to be viable.
The Abbey House Museum is essentially in three parts. The first is a recreated Leeds street scene, with various shops and houses that have been saved and transplanted into the museum. There’s a pub, a pharmacist, a general store, and many others. It’s a bit like Kirkgate in the York Castle Museum, but on a smaller scale. It’s designed to show how ordinary, working class Loiners would have lived in the past.
Exhibitions
Next, you go upstairs to an exhibition space. Previous exhibitions that we’ve seen have included one about various common household objects from the past now considered dangerous, back in 2019. Older Lego bricks contained various heavy metals like cadmium, there were sore throat pastilles containing potassium chlorate which can spontaneously combust, and there were plenty of things with asbestos in them. The last time we went, which was in 2021, the exhibition was about the Leeds music scene and various bands and venues.
This year’s exhibition is called ‘Story Time‘, and is all about children’s stories. Expect to see lots of books and toys, both old and new.
In the next room are various entertainment machines, which can tell your fortune or show an animated diorama. They require one or two old pennies, which can be obtained from an exchange machine that takes modern day British currency. Each 1d coin costs 10p and so have a pound coin spare if you want to try every machine.
The final space is the childhood collection. There’s a collection of dollhouses and toys, spread across several rooms.
History of the Abbey House Museum
The Abbey House Museum gets its name from Kirkstall Abbey, across the road, and it used to be the gatehouse. Parts of the building date back to the year 1152, and after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries (yes, him again!) it was repurposed as a farmhouse. It became a museum in 1927, and so hopefully it’ll be able to celebrate its 100th anniversary now that it has been saved from closure.
Expect to be able to spend half a day at the museum – we combined our visit with a trip to Tropical World, but you could pop across the road to the abbey itself as well, if you want to make a day of it.
Free parking is available (at the time of writing, though note that Leeds City Council has recently introduced modest parking charges at many of its sites), and it’s on major bus routes from Leeds city centre. If you’re arriving by train, it’s roughly equidistant from both Headingley and Kirkstall Forge stations – both of which are about a mile’s walk.
Now that the weather is improving a bit, and the days are getting longer, we’ll be planning to make the most of our National Trust membership by getting out and visiting places. In this blog post, I’m going to detail all the National Trust properties that we can get to from our home in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, within a maximum of 90 minutes driving team (one way). We’ve visited the majority of them, and I’ve blogged about many of them, so this will hopefully serve as a useful guide for me to see where we haven’t been to.
I’m armed with my copy of the National Trust 2025 handbook, and have been through all the properties listed that I know we can get to.
Part one: Properties we’ve been to
I’ll start with the places that we’ve been to before.
Hardcastle Crags
Starting with the most local is Hardcastle Crags, in the hills above Hebden Bridge. I’ve never blogged specifically about our visits to Hardcastle Crags over the years, but it’s been mentioned in passing a few times. Most recently, I mentioned how the main visitor centre at Hardcastle Crags is off-grid, and it came up in last year’s book review as several scenes in Juno Dawson’s Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series take place there. Our most recent visit was in 2023, and it gets a mention in my year-end review. Over the years, I’ve been many times, as it was reachable by train and on foot from Bradford. I’m sure we’ll end up back there in time.
Beningbrough Hall
Beningbrough is close to where my parents live in York, and so I’ve been a few times – the most recent time was in 2022. I blogged about our 2017 visit.
Beningbrough Hall is, I suppose, typical of what you think of when you imagine a National Trust property – a big, stately home, with nice gardens.
Brimham Rocks
Another place I used to go to a lot whilst growing up, and again whilst at university. Brimham Rocks is home to various rock formations, many of which have been given names and backstories over the years. We last visited in 2014, so over 10 years ago and so we’re probably due a repeat visit at some point.
East Riddlesden Hall
This is the nearest indoor property to where we live, on the outskirts of Keighley. We’ve been a few times, with the most recent visit just last year. East Riddlesden Hall is a smaller site, so best for half a day, and isn’t as grand as some other country homes. If anything, that makes it more interesting. There are also gardens at the back.
Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal
One of the National Trust’s larger estates, Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden includes the ruins of an abbey and monastery, a water garden with ponds and fountains, a stately home, a church, a water mill and a huge deer park. It’s big enough to require two separate car parks and entrances.
Our last visit was in early autumn in 2020, during a time when we could meet relatives outdoors. It was the first time I’d seen my parents face-to-face in almost six months, and would be the last time in a while too. Prior to that, our previous visit was in 2015, so again, we’re probably due another trip.
Mount Grace Priory
Mount Grace Priory is rather pushing the 90 minute journey time. I’ve been before with my parents, but it was many years ago. Both English Heritage and National Trust members get in free, as it’s jointly managed by both organisations.
It’s another ruined church and monastery (Henry VIII had a lot to answer for) but on a smaller scale than Fountains Abbey. There’s also a 13th Century Manor House, and formal gardens.
Nostell
I mentioned Nostell earlier this month as somewhere we’d planned to go, but the weather had other ideas. We’re back to large country house and formal gardens territory here; Nostell is well-known for having masses of snowdrops at this time of year. Inside the house is a range of Chippendale furniture.
I’ve been twice; once with Christine and my parents, and once with our nine-year-old when they were much younger. We haven’t been as a family yet, and I haven’t previously blogged about it.
Nunnington Hall
Nunnington Hall is another place I’ve been to as a child, but not as an adult. Again, it’s pushing the 90 minute journey time – it’s actually further away than Mount Grace Priory, but on slower roads. That being said, it’s also somewhere that we could go when staying in York with my parents.
The hall is smaller than others, but hosts regular exhibitions, and the garden has been completely organic for over 20 years.
Treasurer’s House
Being as it is in York city centre, I’ve been to the Treasurer’s House a few times. It’s so named as it was the home given to whoever was the Treasurer at the nearby York Minster. It’s also very haunted, and on Hallowe’en one year I went on a ghost tour. Though I’ve been past it a few times in recent years, I haven’t visited as an adult.
Wentworth Castle Gardens
Wentworth Castle Gardens is one of the newest properties to join the National Trust’s portfolio, having been taken over as recently as 2018. We went in 2021, on a gloriously sunny day that let us see the flowers in the gardens in full bloom. More work has been undertaken since, and so we’re probably due another visit.
The most recent National Trust property that we went to was Gawthorpe Hall. We went at the end of August. It’s also a smaller property; whilst there is extensive parkland, the gardens are small. It’s fine for half a day.
Hare Hill
Hare Hill is a nice, peaceful garden in Cheshire, and home to lots of rare trees. It’s not very big – it was enough for a morning, but not a full day out. Thankfully, there are other National Trust properties nearby, including…
Nether Alderley Mill
Nether Alderley Mill is a medieval corn mill, that has been restored to working order, and one a few that survive to this day. Indeed, it was still in commercial use as recently as 1939, using the power of water to mill corn.
We combined our visit with Hare Hill, back in September 2022, which is nearby. It’s only open on Thursdays and Saturdays during the summer months, and visit is by guided tour only. There’s also limited parking.
Lyme
Lyme is not far from Stockport, and it’s another larger site with a big country house, formal gardens and a deer park. There’s plenty to do and it’s certainly one for a full day out – especially if you want to walk out to a viewing point with a view across most of Greater Manchester. We went in June 2021, and previously I had been in my late teens as well.
Quarry Bank
Another top-tier National Trust property, this time on the western side of Greater Manchester and not far from Manchester Airport. Quarry Bank is big, with the main attraction being a restored cotton mill. It’s now a museum, and has lots of hands-on activities for kids. Elsewhere, there are formal gardens as well as a huge kitchen garden, and a hydroelectric generator with a fish bypass system. My first visit was in 2017, and we went back in 2019 and 2020.
Speke Hall
Speaking of properties near airports, Speke Hall rubs up against the runway of Liverpool John Lennon Airport. If you haven’t already guessed from the architecture, it was built in Tudor times, and Catholic priests were hidden there (like I said, Henry VIII had a lot to answer for). It was restored in the 19th century, so a lot of the interior decor is in the Arts and Crafts style.
Outside, there are extensive gardens, including a ‘secret’ garden accessible by a tunnel, a maze, and a story trail for kids. We’ve been a couple of times, in winter 2019 and August 2022.
Tatton Park
Another large site, although the National Trust is only responsible for part of it. That means members have to pay for parking, and the farm. That said, the farm is worth it, as it’s home to many rare breeds and plenty of talks about the animals.
The gardens at Tatton Park are really good. On the times we’ve visited, we’ve only had time for the farm and the gardens; we haven’t been into the houses yet. Yes, there’s more than one house there; the one pictured, and a medieval house now known as Tatton Old Hall. Our visits were in May 2019, May 2021 and June 2022.
Biddulph Grange Garden
Biddulph Grange is in North Staffordshire, and again at the limits of how far we would go in a day. I went there lots of times as a kid, as I had family nearby, and it’s one of my happy places. To call it simply a ‘garden’ isn’t doing it justice – there are lots of different themed areas, with various follies and hiding places. The Japanese garden is my favourite. Our recent visits were February 2019 and during lockdown in August 2020, seeing as it’s mainly outdoors. I haven’t blogged about our visits before.
Later this week, I’ll post part two – the places where we’ve not been to yet.
