20 Attractions to Explore Near National Trust - Cley Hill

Shearwater is a man-made freshwater lake near Crockerton village, about 2+1⁄4 miles southwest of the town of Warminster in Wiltshire, England. The lake is formed from a tributary of the River Wylye. The lake is surrounded by mature woodland and is popular with anglers, walkers , runners, and cyclists. The Shearwater Sailing Club has a boathouse and a variety of dinghies on the lake, the largest being sixteen feet in length.

Longleat House was widely regarded as one of the best examples of high Elizabethan architecture in Britain and one of the most beautiful stately homes open to the public. The house is set in 1,000 acres of parkland landscaped by Capability Brown, with 4,000 acres of let farmland and 4,000 acres of woodland, which includes a Center Parcs holiday village. It was the first stately home to open to the public, and the Longleat estate includes the first safari park outside Africa

The Longleat hedge maze is considered the world's longest, with 1.69 miles of pathway. It is constructed using more than 16,000 English yews forming the walls surrounding a central tower and features six raised footbridges.The maze has 8-foot tall hedges that winds around a massive estate that functions as the seat of the Marquesses of Bath and hosts a few unusual features including a drive-through safari park stocked with more than 500 exotic animals. The maze has several dead ends and multiple

The Wessex Ridgeway is a long-distance footpath in southwest England. It runs 136 miles from Marlborough in Wiltshire to Lyme Regis in Dorset, via the northern edge of Salisbury Plain and across Cranborne Chase AONB. The footpath was opened in 1994. At Marlborough, the footpath meets the Ridgeway National Trail which continues into Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Two further long-distance footpaths extend to Hunstanton in Norfolk; together, the four paths are referred to as the Greater Ridgewa

Bratton White Horse is a hill figure on the escarpment of Salisbury Plain, approximately 1.5 mi east of Westbury in Wiltshire, England. Located on the edge of Bratton Downs and lying just below an Iron Age hill fort, it is the oldest of several white horses carved in Wiltshire. It was restored in 1778, an action which may have obliterated another horse that had occupied the same slope. A contemporary engraving from around 1772 appears to show a horse facing in the opposite direction that was rat

Nunney Castle in Somerset dates from the 1370s. Its builder was Sir John de la Mare, a local knight who was beginning to enjoy royal favour. Much modernised in the late 16th century, the castle was besieged and damaged by the Parliamentarians in 1645, during the English Civil War. . Its builder was Sir John de la Mare, a local knight who was beginning to enjoy royal favour. Much modernised in the late 16th century. English Heritage maintains the site as a tourist attraction.

White Sheet Hill is another fine example of elevated chalk grassland which has evidence of ancient history at its summit. It has a neolithic enclosure dating back to 3,000 BC, and an Iron Age hill fort at the top. There are also Bronze Age barrows, some of which are clearly visible. It is incredible to think they have survived for 3 to 4,000 years. The Roman road which runs along the hill was at one time the main route through the Selwood Forest. The hill is part of the Stourhead estate and has

Stourhead is the best example of a garden inspired by the great landscape painters of the seveneeenth century. Ernst Gombrich suggests it should bear the signature of an Italianized French painter: Claude Lorrain. The estate is about 4 km northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Grade I listed 18th-century Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, gardens, farmland, and woodland. Stourhead has been part-owned by the National Trust since 1946.

This circular temple was built in 1765, by the architect Henry Flitcroft, to outdo William Chamber’s earlier Temple of the Sun at Kew. It is dedicated to Apollo, the sun god. Nestled on a hilltop, the temple has delightful views over the lake.

King Alfred’s Tower is a 160ft high folly, designed by Henry Flitcroft for Henry Hoare II in 1772. It is believed to mark the site where King Alfred the Great rallied his troops in 878. The tower commemorates the accession of George III to the throne in 1760 and the end of the Seven Years War. The 49-metre-high triangular tower has a hollow centre and is climbed by means of a spiral staircase in one of the corner projections. It includes a statue of King Alfred and dedication inscription.

Trowbridge Museum, in the town of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, is a centre for the history of West of England cloth production. It holds a collection of portraits and oil paintings of Trowbridge. The collection has approximately 39 oil paintings, dating from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century. Many of the works in the collection have been donated by local people.

Farleigh Hungerford Castle was built to serve as a luxurious home for the Hungerford family. The castle was built to a quadrangular design, already slightly old-fashioned, on the site of an existing manor house overlooking the River Frome. A deer park was attached to the castle. One of the iconic attraction in this area and also you can spend some beautiful time here.

This beautiful small manor house, built over three centuries, has late Gothic and Jacobean windows, decorative plasterwork and two important keyboard instruments. It has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1956 and was designated as Grade I listed in 1962. There is some fine period furniture, 17th- and 18th-century tapestries and a modern topiary garden.

Iford Manor is a manor house in Wiltshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building sitting on the steep, south-facing slope of the Frome valley. It was rated as among the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" by Condé Nast Traveler in 2020, with the manor taking "center stage". Set in 2.5 acres, this steep, terraced, Italianate garden affords the visitor wonderful views of the valley, especially enjoyed from the casita, loggia and cloisters.

Avoncliff Aqueduct carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the River Avon and the Bath to Westbury railway, at Avoncliff in Wiltshire, England, about 1+1⁄2 miles west of Bradford-on-Avon. It was built by John Rennie and chief engineer John Thomas, between 1797 and 1801. It is a Grade II* listed structure. The aqueduct has three arches and is 110 yards long, with a central elliptical arch of 60 ft span, and two semicircular side arches each 34 ft across, all with V-jointed arch stones.

Bradford-on-Avon Tithe Barn is a Grade I listed barn in Pound Lane, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England. It was part of a medieval grange belonging to Shaftesbury Abbey and was built in the early 14th century, with a granary dated to about 1400. It is owned and protected by English Heritage and managed by the Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust.

Fonthill Lake is a lake in southwest Wiltshire, England. It lies just to the south of the village of Fonthill Bishop, east of the village of Fonthill Gifford, and northeast of Fonthill Abbey. The lake is 1.6 km long and approximately 100 m wide at its maximum breadth. The lake was created in the mid-18th century by building a weir below fish-ponds fed by the brook, for Alderman William Beckford, the builder of the house later known as Fonthill Splendens.

St Laurence's Church, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, is one of very few surviving Anglo-Saxon churches in England that does not show later medieval alteration or rebuilding. The church is dedicated to St Laurence and documentary sources suggest it may have been founded by Saint Aldhelm around 700, although the architectural style suggests a 10th- or 11th-century date. St. Laurence's stands on rising ground close to the larger Norman parish church of the Holy Trinity.

The East Somerset Railway is a 2+1⁄2-mile heritage railway in Somerset, running between Cranmore and Mendip Vale. Prior to the Beeching Axe, the railway was once part of the former Cheddar Valley line that ran from Witham to Yatton, meeting the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway at Wells. The railway has steam train rides, engine shed walk through, small museum, signal box. They also have a miniature railway, shop and cafe.

The Courts Garden is an English country garden in Holt, near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England. The garden has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1943 and is Grade II listed. It is now freshened and superbly planted and maintained. It is a manageable seven acres of topiary, hedges, pools and plants in satisfying harmony and typical of Arts and Crafts style gardens.