5 GREAT OUTDOOR SPACES FOR YOUR KIDS TO ENJOY

From Wednesday, 3 June, the National Trust is reopening some of its finest gardens and parklands in England and Northern Ireland, the perfect outdoors antidote to ten weeks of lockdown. Visitor numbers are limited, in order to maintain social distancing, so you’ll need to book your arrival slot online in advance – tickets go on sale on Fridays for the following week. Here are our five favourites; for the full list of places that are currently open, and to find out how to book your visit, see here.

One of the most recognisable ruins in England, CORFE CASTLE was built on a peak in the Purbeck Hills nearly a thousand years ago. It took two sieges during the English Civil War for the castle to finally fall to Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads, who then promptly took gunpowder to its walls, leaving the ragged outline that survives today. This is a place to let your imagination run wild (queens were imprisoned here and boy-kings bumped off) and to soak up the views across the surrounding hills and heathlands.

You’ll need to book a session at Cliveden Spa if you want to see (and swim in) the infamous pool where a chance meeting between Christine Keeler and John Profumo was to ultimately bring down the government. For now, though, you can explore CLIVEDEN’s wider estate, from the house’s formal gardens to its various woodland walks. The Parterre is beautiful in early summer, the Memorial Garden recalls the time the house served as a hospital during the First World War, and you can keep the kids entertained on a kind of sculptural treasure hunt, seeking out Joan of Arc, Roman sarcophagi and a pair of granite baboons that once stood guard outside a temple in Ancient Egypt.

The first nature reserve set up by the National Trust, and one of the most important wetlands in Europe, WICKEN FEN NATURE RESERVE is a hypnotic landscape of swaying reeds and shallow lakes. There are some lovely walking routes in and around the reserve, past flooded fields, on wooden boardwalks that cross old peat bogs, and along pathways once used to drove cattle. If you’ve been pining for nature during lockdown, this is the place to find it – keep an eye out for roe deer, water voles, dragonflies and bitterns, along with grazing herds of wild konik ponies.

Lyme Hall might be most famous for standing in as Pemberley, Mr Darcy’s country estate, in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but there’s much more to LYME than its Jane Austen associations. Whilst the house itself, home to the Legh family for over 500 years, is still closed to visitors, the surrounding 1400 acres of parkland are ripe for exploration. Walks take in the estate’s deer sanctuary, meander past elaborate follies with names like The Cage and The Lantern, and head high up hillsides that offer views stretching across the Cheshire Plain to Manchester. Knightslow Wood, meanwhile, is perfect for den-making.

Perched halfway down the Ards Peninsula, southeast of Belfast, MOUNT STEWART is home to one of the most interesting gardens in Europe. They were created by Lady Londonderry in the early 1900s and, thanks to their extraordinary collection of plants, have been named by The Daily Telegraph as one of the Top 10 Gardens in the World. Although the mansion itself is closed, much of the estate is now open. The fabulous Mediterranean-style formal gardens take top billing, but you can also tackle the Lake Walk or a number of other trails – the circular Red Trail gives the best overview and heads out along the shore of Strangford Lough, a sheen of water home to seals and porpoises.