Close to Sandringham, a Georgian country house set amid lawns, orchards and woodland.

Widescreen vistas of salt marshes and big skies rush to this family-friendly, quayside hotel. Helmed by Emma Stannard, with ‘universally friendly and efficient staff’, the north Norfolk grand dame is approaching its centenary.

You can take the ferry from Oban, or hop across on a twin-propeller plane, to discover Jane and Alex Howard’s 18th-century inn, bar and village hub, on a hillside overlooking the harbour.

It is not that they’ve put away childish things at this contemporary hotel set into the hillside above Mawgan Porth beach. It remains very family-friendly, but there is plenty for adults.

‘Expensive certainly, but it’s worth paying for quality.’

There is much to fire the young imagination at this 17th-century manor house above Chesil beach, the setting for John Meade Falkner’s 1898 tale of smuggling, Moonfleet.

‘An eligible, self-contained gentleman’s residence, very unique. . . with every modern convenience. . .’ So Kenneth Graham describes Toad Hall, which he modelled on this Victorian mansion, a baroque extravaganza with sumptuous interiors, overlooking the Fowey estuary.

'A very special place.’ ‘Utterly charming.’ 'It’s not the Ritz, but you will feel like a lord.’ Lavish and frequent praise in 2019 for Wendy and Simon Bennett’s Victorian fantasy castle in the Eden valley.

Families have ‘a grand time’ at this 16th-century manor house with spa, in ‘lovely manicured grounds’.