Historic sites
Avebury Stone Circle
Marlborough, Wiltshire
The largest stone circle in Britain, so big that part of the village of Avebury sits inside it.
Historic sites in United Kingdom
Historic sites
Bodiam Castle
Northiam, East Sussex
A storybook castle with round towers and battlements, rising straight out of a wide moat.
Historic sites
Chartwell
Westerham, Kent
The family home of Sir Winston Churchill from 1924 until the end of his life, kept much as it was in the 1930s, with his books, pictures and uniforms.
Historic sites
Christ Church, Oxford
Oxford, Oxfordshire
The grandest of Oxford's colleges, founded by Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII in 1546.
Historic sites
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle, Dorset
The dramatic ruin of a royal castle on a steep hill in a gap in the Purbeck Hills, above a village of grey stone cottages.
Historic sites
Cragside
Rothbury, Northumberland
The Victorian home of the inventor and industrialist Lord Armstrong, and the first house in the world lit by hydroelectricity.
Historic sites
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh
A fortress on an extinct volcano above Scotland's capital, the home of the Scottish crown jewels (the Honours of Scotland) and the Stone of Destiny.
Historic sites
Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden
Ripon, North Yorkshire
The largest monastic ruin in England, a Cistercian abbey founded in 1132 and closed by Henry VIII, set in a wooded valley beside the River Skell.
Historic sites
Hadrian's Wall and Housesteads Roman Fort
Hexham, Northumberland
The wall built across northern England by the Emperor Hadrian from 122 AD to guard the Roman Empire's north-west frontier.
Historic sites
Hardwick Hall
Glapwell, Derbyshire
"Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall": an Elizabethan prodigy house built in the 1590s for Bess of Hardwick, one of the richest women in England, who…
Historic sites
Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's house
Windermere, Cumbria
The small 17th-century farmhouse Beatrix Potter bought in 1905 with the money from her first books, and where she wrote many of her tales.
Historic sites
Lacock Abbey and village
Lacock, Wiltshire
A medieval nunnery turned into a country house, where William Henry Fox Talbot made the earliest surviving photographic negative in 1835, of an oriel…
Historic sites
Lindisfarne Castle
Bamburgh, Northumberland
A Tudor fort on a rocky outcrop on Holy Island, turned into a holiday home by Edwin Lutyens for Edward Hudson, founder of Country Life magazine.
Historic sites
Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demesne
Castlerock, Causeway Coast and Glens
A small round temple, modelled on the temples of Vesta in Italy, perched on the very edge of a cliff above Downhill Strand, built in 1785 as a librar…
Historic sites
Powis Castle and Garden
Welshpool, Powys
A medieval castle of red stone built by Welsh princes, perched on a ridge above famous Italianate terraced gardens, laid out over 300 years ago and p…
Historic sites
Roman Baths, Bath
Bath, Bath and North East Somerset
A remarkably well-preserved Roman bathing complex built around natural hot springs, with the steaming green Great Bath at its centre, surrounded by G…
Historic sites
Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
The half-timbered house on Henley Street where William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and grew up.
Historic sites
St Michael's Mount
Marazion, Cornwall
A tidal island off the coast of Cornwall crowned by a medieval castle and church, the home of the same family since the 17th century.
Historic sites
Stonehenge
Amesbury, Wiltshire
The world's most famous prehistoric monument, a ring of huge standing stones on Salisbury Plain, built in stages from about 3000 BC; some of the ston…
Historic sites
Sutton Hoo
Woodbridge, Suffolk
The Anglo-Saxon royal burial ground where, in 1939, a great ship burial was found under a mound, full of treasures, among them a magnificent iron hel…
Historic sites
Tower of London
Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets
A castle on the Thames founded by William the Conqueror in the 1070s, which has served as a royal palace, a prison and a place of execution.
Historic sites
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire
A French Renaissance-style château built in the 1870s and 1880s for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild to display his collection of art and to entertain.
Historic sites
Arlington Court and the Carriage Museum
Combe Martin, Devon
A Regency house in a wooded valley on the edge of Exmoor, filled with the collections of Rosalie Chichester, who lived here until 1949: model ships, …
Historic sites
Attingham Park
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
A grand Georgian mansion built in 1785 for the 1st Lord Berwick, with a picture gallery by John Nash and a collection of Regency silver and Italian f…
Historic sites
Baddesley Clinton
Wroxall, Warwickshire
A medieval moated manor house in the Forest of Arden that hid Catholic priests in the 1590s; three priest holes can still be seen.
Historic sites
Bateman's
Burwash, East Sussex
The 17th-century sandstone house in the Sussex countryside where Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, lived from 1902 until his death.
Historic sites
Beatles childhood homes, Liverpool
Liverpool
The homes where John Lennon and Paul McCartney grew up: Mendips, the 1930s semi where John lived with his Aunt Mimi, and 20 Forthlin Road, the counci…
Historic sites
Belton House
Great Gonerby, Lincolnshire
A perfect example of a Restoration country house, built in the 1680s for the Brownlow family, with rooms of fine plasterwork, carvings and silver.
Historic sites
Blickling Estate
Aylsham, Norfolk
A Jacobean house of red brick framed by yew hedges, said to stand on the site of the home of Anne Boleyn's family, and to be visited by her ghost eve…
Historic sites
Buckland Abbey
Yelverton, Devon
A 13th-century Cistercian abbey turned into a house, later bought by Sir Francis Drake after his voyage around the world.
Historic sites
Calke Abbey
Melbourne, Derbyshire
The "un-stately home": a Baroque mansion where the reclusive Harpur Crewe family hoarded everything and changed little for over a century.
Historic sites
Castle Coole
Enniskillen, Fermanagh and Omagh
One of the finest neoclassical houses in Ireland, designed by James Wyatt for the Earl of Belmore in the 1790s, with Portland stone brought from Engl…
Historic sites
Castle Drogo
Chagford, Devon
The last castle built in England, designed by Edwin Lutyens for the grocery millionaire Julius Drewe and finished in 1930.
Historic sites
Castle Ward
Killyleagh, Newry, Mourne and Down
An 18th-century house with two different fronts, one Classical and one Gothic, because Lord and Lady Bangor couldn't agree on a style.
Historic sites
Charlecote Park
Wellesbourne Mountford, Warwickshire
A Tudor house of red brick beside the River Avon, home to the Lucy family for over 900 years.
Historic sites
Chirk Castle
Chirk, Wrexham
A massive castle built in 1295 by Edward I to control the Welsh border, the last of his castles still lived in until 2004.
Historic sites
Cliveden
Bourne End, Buckinghamshire
A grand Italianate mansion on cliffs above the Thames, once the home of the Astor family and the setting of the Profumo affair.
Historic sites
Conwy Castle
Conwy
One of the great medieval castles built by Edward I to conquer Wales, completed in 1287, with eight huge towers and almost complete town walls that y…
Historic sites
Cotehele
Gunnislake, Cornwall
A Tudor house of granite and slate above the River Tamar, kept almost unchanged for centuries, with tapestries, armour and old furniture in dim, atmo…
Historic sites
Croome
Eckington, Worcestershire
Capability Brown's first complete landscape, made from marshland for the 6th Earl of Coventry in the 1750s, around a Palladian house, the first he de…
Historic sites
Dolaucothi Gold Mines
Llandovery, Carmarthenshire
The only known Roman gold mine in Britain, worked again in Victorian times and the 1930s.
Historic sites
Dunham Massey
Bowdon, Trafford
A Georgian house and deer park on the edge of Manchester, home of the Earls of Stamford, with a house that was a military hospital in the First World…
Historic sites
Dunster Castle
Minehead, Somerset
A castle on a wooded hill above the medieval village of Dunster, home to the Luttrell family for 600 years and remodelled as a Victorian country house.
Historic sites
Dyrham Park
Marshfield, South Gloucestershire
A Baroque house built in the late 1600s for William Blathwayt, a civil servant to William III, set at the foot of a deer park in a fold of the Cotswo…
Historic sites
Erddig
Wrexham
A country house that tells the story of the people who worked as well as lived in it: the Yorke family painted and wrote poems about their servants, …
Historic sites
Florence Court
Enniskillen, Fermanagh and Omagh
A Georgian house with rococo plasterwork set against the Cuilcagh Mountains, home of the Earls of Enniskillen.
Historic sites
Ham House
Twickenham, Richmond upon Thames
A 17th-century house on the Thames, home of the Duchess of Lauderdale and kept with much of its original furniture and decoration.
Historic sites
Ickworth
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
An eccentric Italianate house with a huge central rotunda, built by the 4th Earl of Bristol, also the Bishop of Derry, to hold the art he collected o…
Historic sites
Ightham Mote
Borough Green, Kent
A medieval manor house surrounded by a moat, hidden in a wooded valley.
Historic sites
Kedleston Hall
Duffield, Derbyshire
A Palladian mansion with some of the finest interiors by Robert Adam, built in the 1760s for the Curzon family.
Historic sites
Kingston Lacy
Sturminster Marshall, Dorset
A grand country house in the style of an Italian palazzo, built for the Bankes family after they lost Corfe Castle in the Civil War.
Historic sites
Knole
Sevenoaks, Kent
One of the largest houses in England, more like a small town, built for an Archbishop of Canterbury and taken by Henry VIII.
Historic sites
Lanhydrock
Bodmin, Cornwall
A grand late Victorian country house rebuilt after a fire in 1881, with a gatehouse and gallery from the 17th century.
Historic sites
Levant Mine and Beam Engine
St Just, Cornwall
A tin and copper mine on the cliffs of the Atlantic coast, where tunnels reached far out under the sea.
Historic sites
Little Moreton Hall
Rode Heath, Cheshire East
A wonderfully crooked Tudor manor house of black and white timber framing, surrounded by a moat.
Historic sites
Lyme
Disley, Cheshire East
A grand house with an Italianate front set in a huge deer park on the edge of the Peak District.
Historic sites
Montacute House
Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset
A glittering Elizabethan mansion of golden Ham Hill stone, built in the 1590s with great walls of glass.
Historic sites
Osterley Park and House
Isleworth, Hounslow
A Tudor mansion transformed by Robert Adam in the 18th century for the Child family of bankers, with some of his finest interiors, from the Etruscan …
Historic sites
Oxburgh Hall
Stoke Ferry, Norfolk
A moated manor house built in 1482 by the Bedingfeld family, who still live here.
Historic sites
Oystermouth Castle, Mumbles
Swansea
The ruins of a Norman castle on a hill above Mumbles, built by the de Breos family in the 12th century, with views over Swansea Bay.
Historic sites
Penrhyn Castle
Bangor, Gwynedd
A vast neo-Norman castle built in the early 1800s for the Pennant family, whose wealth came from Jamaican sugar plantations and Welsh slate quarries.
Historic sites
Penshurst Place
Sevenoaks, Kent
One of the best-preserved medieval manor houses in England, home of the Sidney family since 1552.
Historic sites
Petworth House and Park
Petworth, West Sussex
A grand 17th-century mansion holding one of the finest art collections in the care of the National Trust, including paintings by Turner, who painted …
Historic sites
Plas Newydd House and Garden
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Isle of Anglesey
The home of the Marquesses of Anglesey, on the shore of the Menai Strait with views to the mountains of Snowdonia (Eryri).
Historic sites
Polesden Lacey
Great Bookham, Surrey
The Edwardian country house of the society hostess Margaret Greville, where kings, maharajas and politicians came to stay.
Historic sites
Quarry Bank
Wilmslow, Cheshire East
One of the best preserved textile mills of the Industrial Revolution, founded in 1784 by Samuel Greg.
Historic sites
Red House, Bexleyheath
Welling, Bexley
The only house commissioned by William Morris, designer and leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, built in 1859 by his friend Philip Webb.
Historic sites
Runnymede
Egham, Surrey
The water meadow beside the Thames where King John agreed to Magna Carta in 1215, the charter that became a foundation of law and liberty.
Historic sites
Scotney Castle
Lamberhurst, Kent
The romantic ruin of a 14th-century moated castle, set as the centrepiece of a picturesque garden by the Hussey family when they built a new house on…
Historic sites
Seaton Delaval Hall
Seaton Delaval, Northumberland
A Baroque masterpiece designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, architect of Blenheim, for the Delaval family, known for their wild parties and practical jokes.
Historic sites
Sizergh
Kendal, Cumbria
A medieval house built around a 14th-century tower, home to the Strickland family for over 700 years.
Historic sites
Snowshill Manor
Blockley, Gloucestershire
A Cotswold manor filled with the extraordinary collection of the architect and craftsman Charles Wade, who gathered over 20,000 objects: Japanese sam…
Historic sites
Souter Lighthouse and The Leas
Whitburn, South Tyneside
A red and white striped lighthouse opened in 1871, the first designed to use alternating electric current.
Historic sites
Speke Hall
Liverpool
A rare Tudor black and white timber-framed manor house on the banks of the Mersey, built around a courtyard with two ancient yew trees.
Historic sites
Tattershall Castle
Coningsby, Lincolnshire
A towering red-brick castle built in the 1430s for Ralph Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of England, rising high above the flat Lincolnshire fens.
Historic sites
The Needles Old Battery
Freshwater, Isle of Wight
A Victorian fort perched on the cliffs at the western tip of the Isle of Wight, with views straight down to the Needles, three chalk stacks rising fr…
Historic sites
The Pantiles, Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent
An elegant Georgian colonnade in the old spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, built around the Chalybeate Spring, whose iron-rich water was discovered …
Historic sites
Tyntesfield
Nailsea, North Somerset
A spectacular Victorian Gothic Revival house, with towers, turrets and a private chapel, built for the Gibbs family, who made a fortune from guano.
Historic sites
Uffington White Horse
Shrivenham, Oxfordshire
A graceful prehistoric figure of a horse cut into the chalk of a hillside about 3,000 years ago, the oldest hill figure in Britain.
Historic sites
Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness
Drumnadrochit, Highland
The ruins of a medieval castle on a headland jutting into Loch Ness, the long, deep lake famous for its legendary monster, 'Nessie'.
Historic sites
Wightwick Manor
Wolverhampton
A Victorian house built in the 1880s for a paint manufacturer, filled with one of the best collections of Arts and Crafts design and Pre-Raphaelite a…
Historic sites
Wimpole Estate
Orwell, Cambridgeshire
The largest country house in Cambridgeshire, with a library and chapel decorated by some of the best architects of the 18th century.
Historic sites
Woolsthorpe Manor
Colsterworth, Lincolnshire
The farmhouse where Isaac Newton was born in 1642 and where he did much of his most important work while Cambridge was closed by the plague in 1665 a…
Historic sites
Conwy Suspension Bridge
Llansantffraid Glan Conwy, Conwy
One of the first road suspension bridges in the world, built by Thomas Telford in 1826 with turrets to match Conwy Castle beside it.
Historic sites
Monk's House
Lewes, East Sussex
The weatherboarded cottage in the village of Rodmell that was the country home of the writer Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard.
Historic sites
Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park
London, Westminster
The north-east corner of Hyde Park, near Marble Arch, has been London's home of free speech since 1872.
Historic sites
Wray Castle
Ambleside, Cumbria
A mock-Gothic castle with turrets and battlements on the western shore of Windermere, built in the 1840s for a retired surgeon.