They can be relied upon to tell you most things about a property, from the name of the man who designed the ormolu clock in the salon to the year that the second viscount had the nearby village converted into a lake. But when it comes to pointing out the best grassy slopes for running down, National Trust guidebooks are next to useless.

Similarly they won't invite you to imagine you are a Roman soldier on the look-out for Picts and Scots, to climb on to a cannon or to shout loudly in order to hear your voice echoing around the stone tower.

Which is why the Trust has produced this attractive, spiral-bound book that views a selection of its properties through the eyes of children.

It offers 125 ideas for days out at properties as diverse as George Stephenson's birthplace ("Clamber on to the beds to discover what it felt like to be a family asleep in one room") and the Victorian fort overlooking the Needles ("Learn to use the Beaufort Scale to work out how strong the wind is").

There are lists of things to see ("messages written in the woodwork by Tudor carpenters") and no end of things to do ("try out the spinning wheel - not so easy!"). There's even a section of puzzles and stickers - to make the journey as much fun as the arriving.