Northampton makes a practical base for the Northamptonshire countryside and its exceptional historic houses and curiosities.
Althorp House, 10 kilometres north, is the Spencer family home open in July and August — it contains a fine collection of Old Master paintings and the grounds include Diana, Princess of Wales's grave on an island in the ornamental lake. The Rushton Triangular Lodge, 22 kilometres north, is one of England's strangest buildings: a 16th-century folly whose every dimension is based on the number three, built as a coded Catholic monument during the era of religious persecution. Lyveden New Bield, six kilometres from Rushton, is an unfinished Elizabethan water garden and moated lodge by the same builder, Thomas Tresham, abandoned at his death in 1605 and eerily unchanged since.
Rockingham Castle, 25 kilometres north near Corby, is a genuine working medieval castle with a long history of royal occupation; it was used by Charles Dickens as a base while writing.