Stourhead Gardens

The lake at Stourhead stops you dead. You round a corner through the woods and suddenly there's this perfect mirror of water with a Palladian bridge reflected in it, a temple on the far bank, and everything arranged as if some 18th-century landowner sat down and decided to paint the landscape instead of just living in it.

This isn't a garden in the fussy, flowerbeds-and-hedges sense. It's an entire estate designed as a work of art - 2,650 acres of parkland, lakes, and follies that take proper thought to explore properly. The walk around the main lake takes a good couple of hours if you're stopping to look at things, longer if you venture up to King Alfred's Tower on the ridge above.

History types will eat this up. The gardens were created starting in the 1740s by Henry Hoare II, and they're basically a three-dimensional poem about classical ideals and the Grand Tour. Families with older kids (under-10s tend to find it a bit samey after a while) will enjoy the walks and the reward of discovering each folly. The grounds are accessible enough, though there are hills.

It's a National Trust property, so admission isn't cheap, but you get proper car parking and facilities. Worth a full morning or afternoon rather than a rushed hour. Wincanton is the nearest town for supplies, and Sunnyhill Campsite sits just 3.7 miles away if you're basing yourself locally - ideal for making this part of a longer park holiday in Somerset.