Temple of Diana

You'll find this neoclassical folly standing on a rise near Newbury, a proper oddity that stops you dead in your tracks. The Temple of Diana is an 18th-century structure built as a romantic ruin - one of those wealthy landowner impulses that somehow survived intact when countless grander houses crumbled to dust.

It's genuinely small. A roofless chamber with columns, basically, but that's rather the point. The appeal isn't scale or spectacle - it's the oddness of the thing, the theatrical gesture of building a fake ruin when you could have just... waited for your actual mansion to decay. History types and photographers will appreciate the bones of it; kids will find it underwhelming unless they're the sort who like clambering about.

Access is free and unrestricted from what I've found, though it's worth checking locally before you trek out. Allow 20 minutes maximum, less if you're not into 18th-century follies. The real value comes from working it into a longer Berkshire ramble.

Stay at Hollington Park Glamping just two miles away and you can tie it to proper walking country. Bishops Green Farm Campsite sits three and a bit miles off if you want something simpler. Neither requires you to commit your holiday to Diana - treat her as a curious footnote to a wider exploration of West Berkshire's countryside rather than a destination in herself.