British wonders: 40 Edinburgh Castle

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
What’s the damage? Adult £10
Topping a black volcanic crag looming over the city at large, Edinburgh Castle is a defiant symbol of the nation, as well as being one of Scotland’s top tourist draws and a World Heritage site. Its position makes it visible from nearly everywhere in the city, but just in case your attention wanders, it reminds everyone of its presence with an almighty cannon blast from the battlements at 1 o’clock daily.
Most of the castle dates to the 16th century but St Margaret's Chapel has survived since the 12th century – making it the city’s oldest structure.

British wonders: 41 Seven Sisters

Location: Near Eastbourne, south-east England
What’s the damage? Free
Move over, Dover. While many people think of the White Cliffs of that southern port city as being the most beautiful series of chalk rock faces in Britain, the Seven Sisters cliffs can actually claim to be purer, whiter and just plain prettier than their easterly neighbours.
Indeed they are often used as stand-ins for Dover’s cliffs in film and television because they are less blighted by modern development.
The Seven Sisters rollercoaster their way along the English Channel below the South Downs of East Sussex. The highest clifftop point in the area is Beachy Head, a site of intoxicating beauty but notorious for being one of the nation’s top suicide spots.

British wonders: 42 Longleat

Location: Wiltshire, South-West England
What’s the damage? Adult £10
One of the south-west’s more eccentric family attractions, Longleat is part stately home, part safari park and part showcase for its owner’s quirkier whims. Open to the public longer - since 1946 - than any other ancestral home, it claims to be the oldest safari park outside Africa.
The park, which has had its own BBC TV programme about it, is set amid grounds designed by the legendary landscape artist Capability Brown. Other attractions include a narrow-gauge railway, a maze, the Elizabethan mansion and some truly trippy murals by the present day owner, Lord Bath.