Charity Farm Caravan and Camping Park

Charity Farm Caravan and Camping Park has a dog exercise area if you’re bringing four-legged friends along on your hol, but for wanders in the wilderness, get along to the heaths and wet meadows of Mere Sands Woods. Red squirrels, stoats and roe deer, along with woodpeckers, sparrowhawks and kingfishers, have been sighted in this nature reserve a 20-minute drive from the park. All in all, 170 bird species tend to flit through the area; twitchers can also stop off at Martin Mere Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Rufford (20 minutes) to see wintering birds like whooper swans and big migration flocks of wigeon. To get your fill of history, drive the 15 minutes to Rufford Old Hall, known as one of the top 16th-century buildings in Lancashire. This timber-framed Tudor manor has Victorian gardens to wend your way round and woodland walks beside a canal leading towards St Mary's Marina, half a mile away. More into browsing boutiques? The farmers’ market, classic tea room and independent stores of Heskin Hall Shopping Village are a 10-minute drive from the park.