National Trust app: discover England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Exploring the UK’s historic houses and castles, islands, nature reserves and even pubs just got a whole lot easier thanks to the official National Trust app on your Lumia.

As a UK conservation charity, the highly regarded National Trust has a long history of protecting not just historic houses, but also gardens, ancient monuments, woodlands, beaches, and villages, with a membership count of 3.7 million.

Now, the free National Trust app for Windows Phone can help you discover 550 “special places” throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Utilizing your phone’s GPS, the app will present you with a variety of sites presented with beautiful photos, distance details, and a snippet of information about the venue.

If you see a place that you’d like to visit, tap on the entry to check out more details such as the additional photos, contact information, opening times, and a map.

Often, many National Trust venues hold events (free or chargeable) that showcase some of their features, or to educate and stimulate visitors. If there’s an event, you’ll find details about it in the app.

Exploring and discovering somewhere new shouldn’t be a solitary experience. Instead, invite your friends or family by using the app’s share functionality.

Planning ahead is really easy with the app thanks to the “My places” feature, a type of bookmark. After you’ve built up a collection of places you’d like to visit, make your way through them by moving them to your “visited” places list.

50 things to do before you’re 11¾

As a side note–and not a part of this app–the National Trust has a project to get youngsters out into the world (with parents, of course) to experience it in all its beauty.

Some of the activities the National Trust’s project website suggests are: damming a forest stream, climbing a tree, visiting a farm, and exploring a cave. All of these activities are possible at the locations found within the National Trust app.

Tip: Create a OneNote notebook on your Lumia to help you tick off activities or add a photo to each activity as you go to help build lasting memories.

If you’re in the UK, explore what the National Trust has to offer this year with the help of this app. Then, in the comments section below, let us know what you’ve discovered!