Lincolnshire: From Lord Tennyson to kiss-me-quick

Stunning stately homes and museum-piece rural towns make Lincolnshire a must-see

What's on

The Tennyson Trail celebrates the 200th anniversary of the great poet's birth in the Lincolnshire Wolds this year. Discover his "haunt of ancient Peace" and other literary landscapes on this self-guided walk. Alfred Tennyson's influence on Victorian culture was not just literary. Tennyson Transformed, at The Collection museum, Lincoln, assembles vivid responses to Tennyson's poetry by the period's best-known artists. Until 31 August.

The acclaimed Stamford Shakespeare Company opens its 33rd summer season of amateur plays at the Rutland Open Air Theatre, with 33,000 expected to attend. From 8 June to 29 August.

Lincolnshire, the spiritual home of the Royal Air Force, hosts The Waddington Air Show, the RAF's biggest display, 4-5 July.

See the sights

This summer, England's grandest first-age Elizabethan stately home, Burghley House, pictured above, tells the 300-year-old secrets of Britain's first souvenir-hunting tourists. The nobility of the 17th and 18th centuries bought back rich pickings from their "grand tours" of Europe and Burghley's young Earls were among the trailblazers. Their larger artefacts are shown in Burghley's staterooms but you can now see inside their suitcases, with the Travelling Earls exhibition, focusing on the smaller, personal treasures gathered during their "gap year". Until 29 October.

Lincoln Cathedral is one of Europe's finest Gothic buildings. The recent Young Victoria film used it as a location and its eponymous summer exhibition displays the movie's replica Edward I Coronation Chair plus rare Victorian manuscripts and books. Until 31 October.

Skegness, synonymous with traditional kiss-me-quick fun, now has contemporary attractions such as an orphaned seal-pup sanctuary, kite-surfing, and a cool skate park. There's also a walk along the seafront, the Jolly Fisherman Trail, which is named after the mascot that helped launch the Great Northern Railway's turn-of-the-century tourist campaign.

Further information

For more suggestions and accommodation ideas, go to visitlincolnshire.com.