Stourhead

The lake comes into view first, and it stops you dead. Stourhead's water gardens sprawl across a valley near Wincanton like someone's finally got landscaping right, with a classical temple sitting on an island and Palladian bridges reflected in the glass-still surface. You're looking at 18th-century deliberation here - every tree, every sightline, every folly placed to catch you off guard as you walk the circuit.

The circuit itself is the whole point. You loop around the lake on well-maintained paths, maybe forty minutes if you're not stopping to stare, and each turn reveals another carefully composed view. The Temple of Flora, the Grotto, that bridge again from a different angle. It's proper theatrical landscape design, the kind of thing that made British estate owners go a bit mad with ambition.

Walkers and garden obsessives will get the most from this. Families with young kids might find the 2.5-mile loop manageable but a touch dull unless they're already into that sort of thing. History enthusiasts absolutely should come - this is visual history, not plaques and dates. The nearby Longleat Caravan and Motorhome Club Campsite, just over six miles away, gives you a solid base, and Sunnyhill Campsite is even closer at under four miles if you want something smaller.

Go early on a weekday if you can stand it. Weekends pull crowds who'll be jockeying for angles in the Grotto. The autumn light here is something else - golden and low, catching the water just right.