Haddon Hall

Haddon Hall is one of the oldest houses in England, and its gardens are as much a part of the visit as the rooms. The terraced Elizabethan walled gardens step down towards the River Wye, giving wide views over the old parkland and the Peak District beyond. They were recently redesigned by the Chelsea award-winning garden designer Arne Maynard, so you get historic walls and terraces with fresh, generous planting inside them.

Walk the terraces slowly from top to bottom. Each level gives a different view of the house and the river, and the stone walls and steps show how to make a steep site feel calm and ordered. It is a good place to study planting against old stone, and to think about how terraces can turn a slope into a series of garden rooms. Look out too for the walled topiary garden by the stable-block cottage, created by the 9th Duke of Rutland, with clipped heraldic shapes of the boar's head and peacock, the emblems of the Vernon and Manners families.

Inside the hall you can see the medieval banqueting hall, the Tudor parlour with its painted ceiling, the chapel with rare fifteenth-century wall paintings, and the Long Gallery, designed by Robert Smythson. A restaurant in the seventeenth-century stable block makes it easy to stay for lunch. Be aware that the house has uneven floors and many steps, and that the car park is across the busy A6, with about 30 steps and some gravel on the way to the hall.