We leave Belfast on the early morning HSS and then drive south from Stranraer to the heart of Northamptonshire and our hotel for the duration of the tour - half way between Birmingham and London.

Home to the world famous Burghley Horse Trials, Burghley House has featured in the movies “Pride & Prejudice” and the “Da Vinci Code”, and was most recently seen in “Elizabeth the Golden Age”.

We spend most of the day enjoying the fabulous house and grounds, with a little time in Northampton town before returning to the hotel.

Oxford, the “City of the Dreaming Spires”, so called because of the harmonious architecture of the buildings which house the oldest university in the English speaking world. We have a short introductory tour on arrival, with the rest of the day free to explore and absorb the atmosphere. Try the view over the spires from Carfax Tower, shop in the historic covered market or just watch the punts on the river Thames (or the Isis as it is called when it flows through the city).

We visit one of England’s best kept secrets today, Waddesdon Manor - though its recent award as the “Best Large Tourist Attraction in the South East region” may well change that! The judges described it as “a fabulous experience…a superbly maintained historic property, steeped in heritage”.

Built by Baron de Rothschild on a hilltop overlooking the Aylesbury Valley, with one of the best Victorian Gardens in Britain, it is now a National Trust property. www.waddesdon.org.uk

We visit the light blue university city today, Cambridge - an inspiration to many of England’s great thinkers, Newton, Darwin, Wordsworth, Stephen Hawkins and even John Cleese.

We leave Northampton after breakfast and make our way back north, retracing our outward journey and arriving back in Belfast around 10.00pm.