National Trust Mottisfont

After our petrol head day at Beaulieu  we opted for a lower key day with a hike and a National Trust property. (There is a video at the end of the post). We followed part of the Monarch's Way from our accommodation over to Mottisfont. 

My mum and I enjoyed seeing the churches on the route but my son was not at all impressed:

After a 3 mile walk we were very relieved to reach the estate:

It wouldn't be a National Trust property in the school holiday without some sort of trail. On this occasion it was scarecrows. My son had had enough of trails so we didn't join in:

I spotted that there was an adventure playground so after a bite to eat we headed over to find it. There were some lovely carved pieces of wood to show us where it was:

It was all made from wood and there were opportunities to balance, climb and jump:

For a rest we explored the rest of the gardens. The gardeners had cunningly set up leaf bins to encourage children to collect them up! We didn't manage to bag one of the child sized wheelbarrows but my son did his part:

Of course we had to look around the house as well. It is built on the old abbey and the cellar is part of the original buildings. The inside of the house is currently celebrating the life of sons of Maud Russell who lived in the house after 1934. There was also a chance to play the harpsichord and grand piano that they had played:

We had a final wander around the gardens including the Font that the house is named for, the rose garden (sadly we missed most of the roses) and a chance to do a Hobbit impression at the foot of a venerable oak tree:

All in all a good use of our membership. Here is a little video of the play area and music: