Nunnington Hall

There has been a building on this spot since 1249, but what you visit today is a 17th century manor on the bank of the River Rye, fitted out as the Fife family left it in the 1920s. Oak panelling, big fireplaces, family rooms rather than state rooms. What lifts it above a pleasant National Trust afternoon is the Carlisle Collection, a set of miniature rooms made to a scale that beggars belief: instruments that work, a Shakespeare the size of a thumbnail, furniture built by hand at one eighth of life. Adults arrive polite about it and leave talking about nothing else. Outside there are five acres of riverside garden with peacocks strutting through, a play area for children, a tea room and a second hand bookshop.

From Tea Time Cafe on the market place, take the A170 east out of Thirsk and up Sutton Bank, keep going towards Helmsley, then turn off onto the minor roads that run east to Nunnington. It is about 18 miles and 30 minutes, with free parking on site; the car park closes 15 minutes after the hall does, so do not linger by the river past closing.

There is no bus. The seasonal Moorsbus M5 that serves Coxwold, Byland, Ampleforth and Helmsley on summer weekends does not come this far east, so Nunnington is a car trip whatever the season. If you are already at Helmsley, it is a short run on.

Work through the house first. The rooms are shown as a lived-in 1920s home, and the volunteers here are good at pointing out the things you would walk past. The Carlisle Collection has its own space and deserves a proper half hour. There is a changing art exhibition programme, which means the hall rewards a second visit in a way many houses do not. Then the gardens: five acres running down to the Rye, meadow and border planting, and peacocks that have no fear of anybody. Children make for the Lion's Den play area. Finish in the tea room, indoors or out, and give the second hand bookshop five minutes, because it is better stocked than it looks.

The miniature rooms are the reason to come, and they are unlike anything else within an hour of Thirsk. The riverside garden is the second draw, especially in early summer. The access provision is worth flagging too: ramped ground floor, cafe and garden, mobility parking, and a VR headset that shows the upper floors to anyone who cannot manage stairs, which is a rare bit of thinking.

National Trust members go free, so this is the cheapest big day out on the list if you carry a card. Last entry is an hour before closing and the house is the best part, so arrive by early afternoon at the latest. Dogs are welcome on short leads in the garden and the estate, but it is assistance dogs only inside the house and the cafe. When the weather closes in, Nunnington and the Mouseman showroom at Kilburn are the two we send people to, because both keep you indoors. Pair it with Helmsley for a full day, or with Rievaulx if you want a ruin and a house in the same run.