The Shell Museum

You walk in expecting dusty Victoriana and leave genuinely fascinated. The Shell Museum near Holt is exactly what it sounds like - thousands of shells, arranged with the sort of methodical obsession that only comes from decades of collecting. Rooms spiral through molluscs from around the world, each display case a small study in colour and geometry.

It's quiet, often eerily so, which rather works in its favour. You're not fighting crowds to see anything. The shells themselves tell stories - pearl-bearing oysters, giant clams, tiny spirals from deep ocean trenches. Some cases focus on British finds from Norfolk's own beaches; others take you to tropical reefs you'll never visit. Kids under twelve might find it dry unless they've got a naturalist streak, but teenagers interested in marine life or collecting will absolutely get it.

Allow 45 minutes to an hour, longer if you actually read the labels properly. Admission charges weren't confirmed, but museum prices in Norfolk typically hover around five to seven quid. The place works well as a rainy-day diversion when you're based at one of the nearby parks - Kelling Heath is only four miles away, and you can combine it with a walk around Holt itself, which is a proper market town with decent tea shops.

Not flashy, not Instagram-friendly, and entirely unbothered by modern museum design trends. That's rather the appeal.