An interesting and historical building representing various architectural styles with the additions and extensions built over its life. Photography is restricted to the exterior, gardens and great hall. There is plenty to see, with lots of rooms to visit in various styles and representing several historical periods, you can see the carved seal of the Pilgrimage of Grace in the great hall. The volunteers who staff the house are knowledgeable, enthusiastic and add lots of historical and family context to the displays There is a pleasant relaxed cafe with indoor and outdoor seating and a good range of hot and cold drink, hot snack and sandwiches. The philip Ashcroft collection is kinda squashed into a stable but the contents are interesting none the less. The toilets are clean, fresh and well maintained. There is a good sized carpark that does fill up very quickly. Do visit the adjacent Village Church, marina and canal if you have imeas part of your visit.

Very popular place on bank holidays, as you might imagine and particularly so on hot summer's day. The Hall is lovely and you can visit most of the rooms. Parking lot is rather small so be prepared to park away on busy days. Parking near St Mary's Church and enter via the side gate a good option. The grounds are very pretty but not huge. Good place for families but there's not loads to do for small kids.

Had a lovely afternoon here today, checking out all the different scarecrows. We did have to park on the main road and walk down as the car park was full (it's only small) so be aware of that before you visit. It wasn't a long walk though. I also saw much more of the grounds today because of the scarecrows, despite having been here a few times in the past! We had a drink and cake in the tea room which was lovely and also walked over to St Mary's church. All in all a great visit - we even managed to time it well with the rain showers!

Very interesting and set in the most beautiful gardens. My friend is a NT member and wanted another stamp for her NT passport!! She loved it as did I and when she visits again from the South, wants to visit again!

Absolutely stunning Tudor history in this place. Was only allowed to take photo's in the main gallery. Was a stunning place 😍 highly recommend. Friendly staff great cafe especially jacket potatoes 😋. Easy to find, disabled parking and toilet's. Will be back again one day no doubt. Jade and beth we're brilliant 😀.

National Trust Members visit. Fantastic historic hall steeped in history, no doubt about it and worth a visit if you are in the area. As ever lovely NT volunteers doing their best. Can’t fault the level of preservation of the building formed by series of additions alterations and revisions over long time. Highlight is the modest but interesting great hall with some fine and unique architectural features. One lady NT volunteer at entry to main house was great and a mine of information as she reeled off the history. It would be great if she recorded it so it could be played on demand and preserved! Alas some negatives.( management and engagement) Walked straight in and could have avoided paying. Where’s the little NT stickers for lapel? Wayfinding externally very poor and left to chance, ,serendipity and voyage of self discovery. Not welcomed on a wet rainy day. Information in form of even basic handout plan map- none evident. We did request. Orientation. Signage in the building and basic wayfinding again very poor.( where’s the way out?) No proper room signage and lack of history information relating to individual rooms. Eg this is the Withdrawing Room it was used for …. Features of note are…. The engagement of visitors and visual telling of the history by display needs a serious upgrade. (That is actually providing). Some pre-visit web research would pay handsomely for visitors to get the best out of the visit. Spent an hour on a rainy Sunday. Our annual NT membership made the visit cost palatable and we only had a 10 mile journey. Not sure the full admission fee might be considered value by a couple and children but guess that’s not the point for NT? Thank you to the great NT volunteers as always. We are of the opinion the experience could be improved immensely with little cost ?

Small in comparison to some other Natural Trust locations but still as pretty.... I went EXTRA geek whilst I was here, this place was owned by the Hesketh family, the same Hesketh that had the F1 team James Hunt raced for, although non of the cars were stored here.... Blew my little mind 😮🤯

Lovely reserve, well maintained paths and nice hides with wheelchair access, however, when we arrived, the cafe was closed even though the sign on the door stated otherwise. A man came to the door and pointed at the sign, then told us that it was staff and volunteers only, the sign only had the opening times, no explanaition as to why the cafe would be closed (we went well within the opening times written on the sign). Sadly, we couldn't go to the cafe, but otherwise, we had a lovely walk. There are signs posted throught the woods with various information, as well as telling people to stay on the path to leave room for nature, which is very nice I think :) We saw lots of wildlife, it was a very nice walk, just a shame the cafe wasn't open.

Such quiet and picturising views. Lovely area. Highly recommended

Brilliant walk in the woodlands, this place boasts *upto* 200 species of fungi, and I visited on National Fungus Day bit the weather has been weird this year so there wasn't as many to find as I'd usually expect. Cafe is lovely too. Scones were dead nice & fresh.

Thursday 10th October 24. A sunny day for October, however, it was slightly chilly and I was sorry I didn't bring my gloves. Mere Sands is situated near Rufford, Lancashire, the reserve comprises lakes, mature broadleaved and conifer woodland, sandy, wet meadows and heaths. The reserve is visited by over 170 species of birds, 60 of which have bred there. There are also regular sightings of roe deer, stoats and foxes, a total of 17 species of mammals within the area including a small population of red squirrels, although I didn't see any red squirrels only grey. Fifteen species of dragonfly can be found at the reserve, ten of which have bred there. The woodland consists mainly of birch and oak trees with a Scots Pine plantation, where the red and grey squirrels reside. There are also 200 species of fungi found at Mere Sands. I chose to walk the full perimeter of mere sands which is approximately 3.1km/1.9mi long and took me around 50 minutes. See my attached photos. I noticed three bird hides along the route one open and two enclosed where you can also observe the mammals from. Then at the end of the walk I retired to the café for a cup of coffee and a slice of cake which costs me £8.10. The car parking costs £4 for the day which supports the Nature Reserve. You can pay by cash or card. A very pleasant day out to which I will be visiting again and highly recommend anybody to visit. Wheelchair and Pram accessible.

There's a few places I've been waiting for the sun to shine before going to see. Lo and behold today the sun came out so here we go. Mere Sands is a 100 acre nature reserve near the village of Rufford in South Lancashire. Just off the A59 Satnav L40 1TH will get you onto Holmswood Road. The entrance sign off there is easy to miss, it's not the usual brown type so a slow approach may be needed. The car park is big with a £4 per day charge, cash or card. There is also a substantial cafe with toilet facilities at the start and outside tables and chairs. To follow this route the start is on the right at the back of the car park. Tracks are, for the most part, wide, firm and level and I saw a number of pushchairs and a wheelchair there on the day. The walk is mainly through some delightful woodlands with the two lakes, for the most part, hardly visible, so don't expect a lakeside stroll. There are two lakes both teeming with waterfowl which are accessible from three substantial Hides around the route. You really can spend hours here. There is a Hide very close to either end of the trail if you don't want to walk the whole way round. There are two or three trails here, one around the whole perimeter, the others slightly shorter just taking in one of the lakes. Take your pick. This is ideal for young children and there are a number of information boards along the way. Dogs also welcome but it's requested they are kept on a lead. In all, a lovely woodland walk with colourful Foxgloves and Rhododendron flowers with an added diversion watching the bird life. Recommend.

Such a fantastic walk! We spent a good two hours here just walking the dog and it was so lovely. We saw plenty of wildlife and my pup adored her dog ice cream at the cafe.

£4 to park for blue badge holders, even though we didn’t see any signs on the way in at how much it would cost, and then once your in the car park has anpr they have got you. We are disabled and it was towards the end of the afternoon, we were passing by and just wanted a look.