The Abandoned Lake

Getting to the Abandoned Lake from Chester takes you into proper countryside - you're driving away from the city before you know it, crossing into Flintshire where the landscape opens out into farmland and quiet backroads. What you find is a lake that's been left to its own devices, which sounds romantic until you realise the water's often murky, the banks are overgrown, and there's genuine nothing to do when you arrive. Walk around it if you must, but give it thirty minutes maximum.

This isn't a beauty spot. It's atmospheric in the way that forgotten places sometimes are - there's a melancholy to it that appeals to photographers and anyone who likes their landscapes a bit rough around the edges. Kids will ask when they can leave. History buffs might wonder about the story behind its abandonment, but nobody seems to know much about it, which adds to the mystery but doesn't help with the experience.

If you're staying at Honeypot Hideaways or Willow Farm - both excellent glamping spots within four miles - you could make a morning of it combined with a proper walk elsewhere in the area. As a standalone trip though, it's a bit disappointing. The appeal is genuinely just in seeing something that's been left behind, which wears thin fast. Go if you're nearby and curious. Don't plan a trip around it.