Millenium Beacon

The Millennium Beacon stands just outside Huntingdon as a modest but oddly compelling monument to the year 2000. It's the sort of thing that catches your eye on a drive through the Cambridgeshire flatlands - a stone marker commemorating the turn of the millennium, erected when local enthusiasm for such things ran high. There's not much to it, really, but that's rather the point. You'll spend five minutes here maximum, perhaps taking a photo if the light's decent, then heading back to wherever you came from.

Historians might find a mild interest in it as a snapshot of early 2000s community spirit, but it won't change your life. It's the kind of stop that works if you're already in the area camping at Wyton Lakes Holiday Park or Quiet Waters Caravan Park nearby, not something you'd deliberately drive an hour out of your way for. There's no visitor centre, no facilities, no faffing about - just a stone beacon in the landscape.

The real draw of this corner of Cambridgeshire is the countryside itself and the proximity to Huntingdon's River Great Ouse. If you're based at one of the local caravan parks for a week, the beacon makes a pleasant leg-stretch during a walk, but don't expect a full afternoon's entertainment. Go if you're passing. Skip it if your time is tight.