Holiday hotspots with a difference

Fancy holidaying somewhere unusual? How about a quiet weekend in a disused arsenic mine? Or perhaps a windmill is more to your taste? Simon Heptinstall goes in search of weirdly romantic UK holiday spots

All over Britain, wonderful, quirky structures are finding a new lease of life as self-catering holiday homes for those who want something different from a normal country holiday cottage. Visitors can now stay in rooms in a royal palace, find home comforts in a disused water tower, or take over a whole fort. There's even a pineapple to rent for the weekend!

The accommodation may not have satellite TV or air-conditioning - but it offers an unforgettable experience. By way of a taster, here are just a few of the unusual holiday homes on offer in Britain...

Scotland: The Pineapple
Northumberland: Chillingham Castle
Cornwall: Fort Polhawn
Oxfordshire: The Dovecote
Herefordshire: The Triumphal Arch
Northern Ireland: Downhill Holiday Home
Devon: St. Michael and All Angels
Yorkshire: The Pigsty
Norfolk and Yorkshire: Railway hideaways
Wales: Bardsey Island
Shropshire: The Temple

Scotland: The Pineapple
A 200-year-old folly in Stirlingshire, central Scotland, is topped by a 75ft stone pineapple. The fourth Earl of Dunmore built this strange pavilion in 1777 on returning from the New World. As Governor of Virginia, he'd heard that sailors would put a pineapple on a gatepost to announce their return home. Back in Scotland, Dunmore copied the custom with enthusiasm.

The Pineapple has no internal doors, which means you have to go outside to get from one room to another. It sleeps four and costs from £185 for a four-night break.

This is one of 200 restored historic properties rented by the Landmark Trust, a building conservation charity that rents out its properties. They include a former arsenic mine in Cornwall, apartments in the royal Hampton Court Palace near London, a turret in the city walls of Caernarfon, North Wales, a radio hut on the island of Lundy, an old railway station in Staffordshire and a water tower in Norfolk.

For more information, visit www.landmarktrust.co.uk