Hillcrest Park

Visitors may be surprised at just how many interesting places are crammed into this northern corner of the Yorkshire Dales. For a start there’s Raby Castle, which you can see from Hillcrest; it’s one of the greatest medieval piles in the country and its also home to a 200-acre deer park. Just half an hour's drive further up the dale towards Middleton, you'll reach the spectacular foaming cascades of High Force waterfall, which is owned by the Raby Estate. Then there’s the world-beating art collection at the Bowes Museum, housed within a grandiose faux château in Barnard Castle, the ancient capital of Teesdale (seven miles away from Hillcrest). The ever-popular Hamsterley Forest (just a 20-minute drive from the site) will keep active types busy with its many mountain bike tracks and woodland walks. For those who prefer to take to the water, the site is only a quarter of a mile from the River Tees where you can enjoy kayaking and canoeing. Venturing a bit further afield, holidaymakers can reach Head of Steam (the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum) to inspect George Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1, the first steam train to take paying passengers; and the fascinating open air museum at Beamish, which transports visitors back to daily life in Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian times via its living exhibits - take a ride around the village on a vintage tram, talk to the inhabitants of the historic buildings preserved with original contents, or see what it’s really like going down the mines... Teesdale is one of England’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with glorious walking and cycling on the various National Cycle Network routes in close proximity (a night in a pod at Hillcrest makes a perfect stopover for those following the cross-country Walney to Whitby route). Last but not least, the site is surrounded by villages with good food pubs - there are three around a mile away.