Places to explore in NorthamptonshireEngland · East Midlands

Historic Kettering pleasure park, one of Britain's oldest, with heritage rides, a boating lake and vast open green.

Quiet canal-feeder reservoir near Byfield with a lakeside path, fishing and sailing in the far south-west of the county.

Large reservoir north of Northampton ringed by a nature reserve, cycle track and sailing water, with wide open views.

Royal castle on a ridge, Dickens's favourite.

Woodland Trust ancient wood near Everdon that blazes with bluebells in spring, with views over the rolling west of the county.

Rockingham Forest woodland near Corby with cycle and walking trails, a red-kite feeding history and a café in the old abbey grounds.

Pine and mixed woodland on the Althorp estate edge west of Northampton, laced with easy forest walking and cycling paths.

Three-sided lodge built in the 1590s by the Catholic Sir Thomas Tresham, with walls, windows and gables all worked around the number three.

Ancient royal hunting forest of 600-year-old oaks south of Northampton, with waymarked trails through the ancient woodland.

Three-storey former corn mill by the locks telling 200 years of narrowboat life on the Grand Union Canal.

The Harringworth Viaduct, 82 brick arches about three-quarters of a mile across the Welland valley, the longest masonry viaduct across a British valley.

Spectacular half-ruined Elizabethan house and gardens.