Elsick House

The approach to Elsick House is what stays with you - a proper Scottish estate tucked into Aberdeenshire's rolling landscape, just a few miles from Cookney. This isn't a stately home that opens its doors to the masses. It's a working manor with real bones, the sort of place that speaks to what landed life actually looked like rather than what the tourist board wants you to think it was.

You're looking at a substantial stone-built house that's been here since the 17th century, surrounded by the kind of grounds that make you realise how much land money could buy you back then. The exterior tells the story - harled walls, period windows, the sort of proportions that suggest the people inside once mattered quite a bit locally. Whether you can get inside properly depends on the season and the owners' mood, but even the approach is worth the detour if you're already up this way.

Historians and architecture types will find more to chew on here than casual tourists. It's not a showstopper like Balmoral, and it won't keep kids entertained for long. What it is, though, is genuine - no velvet ropes, no gift shop, just a house that's been living its own life for centuries.

If you're based at Stonehaven Queen Elizabeth Park Caravan and Motorhome Club Campsite five miles away, Elsick makes a decent afternoon drive. Ring ahead before you go - you need to check access.