Look out over the Fens and the Wash from the tower

See the Guildhall where the Pilgrims were tried in 1607, and the cells where tradition says they were held

Walk the Haven bank where the boats loaded

St Botolph's in Boston has one of the tallest medieval church towers in England at 81m — the Stump — and the flat Fens around it make it visible for miles; on a clear day it can be seen from Norfolk. The rebuilding began in 1309, and the town below was the port that sent the Pilgrim Fathers to their first attempted escape in 1607.

Boston: The Stump Above the Fens

Visit the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby, and see the Lancaster bomber NX611 'Just Jane' taxi on open days

Take a guided hangar tour at the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight visitor centre at RAF Coningsby

Watch for the Memorial Flight's Spitfires and Hurricanes over the fens in the summer display season

Lincolnshire was Bomber County, its flat land covered with airfields in the Second World War. At East Kirkby, the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre keeps the Lancaster bomber NX611, Just Jane, and taxis her on open days. Down the road at RAF Coningsby, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight keeps Spitfires and Hurricanes flying; its Lancaster is away at Duxford for a major service until 2027.

East Kirkby and Coningsby: Lancasters in Bomber County

Find the 617 Squadron memorial in the village

See the Dambusters bar at the Petwood Hotel

Watch a film at the Kinema in the Woods, still rear-projected

Walk the pinewoods and the site of the old spa baths

Thomas Hotchkin found iodine and bromine-rich water in a disused mine shaft on his land around 1834 and built a spa bath beside it, and a pine-wood town grew up around the cure. In the Second World War the RAF took over its hotels: 617 Squadron, the Dambusters, were based nearby and used the Petwood as their officers' mess, and the squadron's memorial stands in the village.

Woodhall Spa: Iodine Water and the Dambusters

See the rectory and the church at Somersby where Tennyson grew up

Look for the small stream Tennyson is said to have had in mind for The Brook

Walk the lanes and footpaths of the southern Wolds nearby

Alfred Tennyson was born at Somersby rectory in 1809, the fourth of twelve children, and the brook and the valleys around the hamlet are said to turn up in his poems, among them The Brook. The southern Wolds here are quiet, folded hills with small churches, and Gunby Hall, the brick house of 1700 that Tennyson is said to have called a haunt of ancient peace, stands to the south-east.

Somersby and the Tennyson Wolds

Walk a section of the Viking Way, the 147-mile path from Barton-upon-Humber to Oakham opened in 1976, near Tetford

Walk the Bluestone Heath Road, the ancient ridgeway along the top of the Wolds

Look out over the Wolds near Skendleby, where Neolithic farmers built the Giants' Hills long barrow

Walk Snipe Dales Country Park near Spilsby

The Lincolnshire Wolds are chalk hills in the flat county, walked on the Viking Way, the 147-mile path from Barton-upon-Humber to Oakham opened in 1976, and along the top runs the Bluestone Heath Road, an ancient ridgeway. Near Skendleby the Giants' Hills long barrow is a Neolithic burial mound, and Snipe Dales Country Park lies near Spilsby.

Lincolnshire Wolds: Viking Way, Bluestone Heath and Skendleby

See Henry Bell's Custom House of 1683 by the river

Find Hanse House of 1475, the last Hanseatic building in England, and Marriott's Warehouse on the quay

Walk the Saturday Market Place and King's Lynn Minster, St Margaret's

Walk the riverfront and the old warehouses on the Great Ouse

Lynn was Bishop's Lynn until Henry VIII took it in 1537 and it became King's Lynn. Its sea trade with Europe was dominated by the Hanseatic League, and it keeps Hanse House of 1475, the only surviving Hanseatic building in England, the old quayside Marriott's Warehouse, and Henry Bell's Custom House of 1683 by the river. In 2006 it became the first British member of the modern Hanse network.

King's Lynn: The Hanseatic Port on the Great Ouse

Visit Lincoln Cathedral, begun in 1072 and, with its central spire until 1548, the tallest building in the world for over two centuries, and find the Lincoln Imp

Tour Lincoln Castle, walk its wall and see the Lincoln copy of Magna Carta of 1215

Walk up Steep Hill from The Strait in the lower town to the cathedral and Bailgate

See the Newport Arch, the Roman gateway in the north of the old city

Visit the International Bomber Command Centre on Canwick Hill, opened in 2018, with its spire and the Walls of Names

Lincoln Cathedral was begun in 1072, and with its central spire, until it fell in 1548, it was the tallest building in the world for more than two centuries; the Lincoln Imp is carved inside. Lincoln Castle, reached up Steep Hill, keeps one of the copies of Magna Carta of 1215, and the Newport Arch is a Roman gateway still in use. On Canwick Hill above the city, the International Bomber Command Centre opened in 2018 with its spire and the Walls of Names for the aircrew who died.

Lincoln: The Cathedral, the Castle and Magna Carta

Walk the white sands between Arisaig and Morar

Watch the sun go down behind Eigg and Rum

Drive the old coast road rather than the new one

The old road between Arisaig and Morar runs along a coast of white sand and rock, with Eigg and Rum across the water and Skye to the north; Bonnie Prince Charlie left Scotland for France from near the village on 20 September 1746. Behind them lies Loch Morar, and the sunsets over the Small Isles are a big part of the draw.

Arisaig and the Silver Sands of Morar

Walk the full loop of the Severn round the town centre

Find your way through the shuts and passages off the high street

Visit Shrewsbury Abbey across the English Bridge

See the Darwin statue outside his old school

The Severn loops almost completely round Shrewsbury, leaving a neck of dry land that the Normans blocked with a castle; inside the loop the medieval street plan survives with its shuts and passages, and black-and-white timber fronts leaning over them. Charles Darwin was born here in 1809, and the castle, begun on William I's orders soon after the Conquest, was built up by Roger de Montgomery, the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, who also founded the abbey in 1083.