Our verdict
The Quantocks' best wet-weather-friendly, small-legs-friendly outing: an hour of follies, ponds and easy woodland with a café at the end, and the open hill five minutes' drive away when the family's warmed up. The Frankenstein connection is a gift for flagging children.
The wooded pleasure grounds of a vanished Quantock mansion — the house burnt down in 1894 — where Andrew Crosse ran his notorious electrical experiments that fed the Frankenstein legend. Walled garden, folly, ponds and arboretum walks, all free.
National Trust estate and headquarters of the Somerset Wildlife Trust. Grounds free and open dawn to dusk; dogs on leads around the courtyard and ponds.