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Photo: Roy Parkhouse · CC BY-SA 2.0
Long Ashton · Country Park

Ashton Court

Our verdict

Everything a big-city country park should be: red deer under thousand-year-old oaks twenty minutes from the centre. Weekends are heaving; go at 8am and it's yours.

Bristol's 850-acre back garden on the Somerset side of the gorge — deer park, veteran oaks, mountain-bike trails and mansion lawns, all free to wander.

Council-run country park estate, open daily. Some deer-park areas require dogs on leads.