Great Moor Sailing Club

The water at Great Moor catches the light properly on a clear day, and that's when you understand why sailors keep coming back. This is a working sailing club on the outskirts of Buckingham, not a tourist attraction dressed up as one. You'll see small dinghies and keelboats moving across the water, and on weekends the place has genuine life to it - people launching, racing, mucking about on the water.

If you're already a sailor, you know what you're after. The club runs courses and membership opportunities, so ring ahead to check what's available for visitors. Non-members can sometimes watch from the clubhouse if things are quiet, though it's not a spectator venue in any formal sense. Families with sailing experience might find it worth a morning visit, but young kids with zero interest in boats will get bored in roughly ten minutes.

The real value here is as a pit stop if you're staying at Embers Camping in nearby Claydon - it's only a couple of miles away, and mixing a bit of water-gazing into a camping weekend makes sense. Summer afternoons, when the wind picks up, are when the club feels most purposeful. Go in winter and you might find it half-empty. Allow an hour maximum unless you've got boating plans yourself. Worth a detour if sailing's your thing; otherwise, skip it and head for the proper tourist spots around Buckingham.