Croft Castle

Croft Castle, near Leominster on the Welsh border, was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and the Croft family has been bound up with it ever since, still living in part of the house today. The castellated 17th-century manor house holds largely Georgian interiors and a John Constable portrait of Elizabeth Croft. The two-acre walled garden has a small vineyard, glasshouse, lily pond and old apple trees, and 1,500 acres of parkland offer five waymarked walks past the 1,000-year-old Quarry Oak, an avenue of ancient sweet chestnuts, and up to Croft Ambrey Iron Age hillfort. Children get a mini-castle play area by the tea-room and a natural play area; dogs on leads are welcome outdoors but not in the house. Reviewers single out the walled garden and the bacon baps in the Carpenter's tea-room, and note that the house takes only half an hour. One tip from regulars: pick up a walks map at reception, as the waymarking is easy to lose.