Ranksborough Hall Caravan and Camping

Rutland is England’s smallest county, but you still might have to play hooky from work for some time to get around a goodly chunk of its attractions and activities: set in 3000 acres of countryside, the reservoir of Rutland Water is the same size as the Lake District’s Windermere and has lashings of things to do including sailing, windsurfing, cruising over the water on the Rutland Belle, fishing for brown and rainbow trout, and biking and strolling around its 25-mile track. One of the three golf courses in the area is at Rutland Water too, open seven days a week and with buggy and club hire and a licensed bar and restaurant. RockBlok, on Rutland Water's north shore, is a good all-in-one option for those wanting to get active: the activity centre has a climbing wall and abseil tower, high ropes course, a trampoline and a weekend climbing club for ages eight and up. Hire bikes here too, take a boat out on the lake, or pick up your own gear at the outdoor equipment shop next door. The western end of Rutland Water is a nature reserve popular with birdwatchers: the British Birdwatching Fair or Birdfair, aka the Birdwatchers’ Glastonbury, is held here every year to spot all sorts of species including 20,000 wildfowl all year round and the ospreys re-introduced to the area in 1996. Two visitor centres give the lowdown on what to see and do at the reserve: Egleton’s Anglian Water Birdwatching Centre with windows overlooking the wetlands, and the Lyndon Visitor Centre with birdwatching hides and viewing windows. To the west of the reservoir, Rutland’s county town of Oakham has a museum, boutique shops and restaurants and an open-air market twice a week. There’s history in these here parts too: the old buttercross in the marketplace still has its medieval stocks and is now Grade I listed, as is the fourteenth century All Saints Church; and the town’s Oakham Castle is thought to be one of the best surviving examples of Norman architecture in the country (also have a look at its famous collection of horseshoes throughout the centuries). From Oakham, urbanites can reach Rutland’s other market town, Uppingham, six miles away, and there are good road links to Melton Mowbray, Corby, Leicester and Nottingham, all within 10 – 30 miles.