Tattershall Castle

The last day of our holiday took us back to familiar territory, winding our way home via Tattershall Castle and Belton House.

The fifteenth century brick Great Tower of Tattershall was ruinous and on the verge of being bought and shipped to America, when Lord Curzon of Kedleston stepped in and restored it in the early 1900s. Thanks to him there's now a complete castle to explore - the curtain wall has long disappeared, and some of the add-on buildings are ruins, but enter the main building and you're transported back to the castle's heyday.

You can race up the spiral staircase and take in the views which stretch for miles in every direction - or at least you can if you're feeling fitter than I was; walking five miles the previous day had left my legs too weak for such things.

I settled for just a couple of  the floors. Each floor is basically one large room, and entry numbers were limited so, making sure we didn't encounter anyone on the stairs, there was plenty of space inside. lower floors, as always, are for the general household, and the higher you climb the more private the apartments are.

Tapestries on the walls, the huge chandelier, and the ornate fireplace give an idea of how this room, where petitions would have been received, would have looked.

For the more affluent and important there was a private chamber in which to wait till the lord was ready to see them. Anyone else waited in the corridor outside, where the ceiling is decorated with coats of arms.

Tourists have been visiting Tattershall for a long time - and leaving their marks behind. The National Trust probably wouldn't encourage it today.

After the atrocious weather of May, the sky was starting to clear on this Bank Holiday Saturday with the uninterrupted blue reflected in the still waters of the moat.

Today it's a great place to explore, with a helpful guide to tell you about the castle's history and various information boards to show how life was back in medieval times - or if history doesn't fascinate that much, just sit by the moat with a picnic.