Ashdown House

Ashdown House was built in the early 1660s for William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven, as a hunting lodge on the Berkshire Downs and, by legend, as a plague refuge for Elizabeth Stuart, the exiled Winter Queen of Bohemia; she died in 1662 and left him the portraits and hunting trophies that now hang there. The tall chalk-block lodge in the Dutch style stands at the centre of a wooded park cut by four long avenues, its cupola and rooftop platform looking over three counties. The Craven family gave it to the National Trust in 1956 after wartime garrisons left it near derelict. The house is tenanted, so visits are pre-booked guided tours of the hall, the carved oak and elm staircase hung with Elizabeth's family portraits, and the roof, 100 steps up; at the time of writing the house is closed. The woodland, some of it older than the house, is free to everyone, with a tree trail and three herds of deer, and dogs are welcome there on leads but not in the house. Reviewers praise the guides' knowledge. Tips from visitors: book ahead, and take cash, as the Trust cannot take cards on site.