Knole

Set within a glorious deer park, Knole appears much like a small village when viewed from a distance. It is a complex and beautiful house, which has links with kings, queens and nobility, as well as literary connections with Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf. Thirteen superb staterooms are laid out much as they were in the 18th century, to impress visitors with the wealth and standing of the Sackville family (who still live at Knole). The house boasts a world-renowned collection of Royal Stuart furniture, paintings by Gainsborough, Van Dyck and Reynolds, as well as important 17th-century tapestries. The 404-hectare (1,000-acre) deer park surrounding the house is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is the only remaining medieval deer park in Kent.

Winner of Sandford Award 2002, 2007.