We saw a Queen Anne Drawing Room, a Chippendale Library, a Georgian bedroom and a Palladian Hall and staircase, but there was no chance of us ever climbing the stairs or sitting in one of the finely-crafted chairs.

For these rooms were miniature versions of the real thing, built precisely to scale, mostly at one-eighth of natural size. They were collected by Mrs F M Carlisle over 40 years, with craftsmen commissioned to create rooms and furniture with incredible realism. In the drawing room, the tiny drawers have dovetailed joints, the locks have keys that turn and the writing bureau even has secret drawers. In the Palladian Hall, 20 tiny pieces of wood were joined together to produce the curved handrail.

We were in the attic of Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley, a manor house dating back to the 1600s and preserved for the nation by the National Trust. The Carlisle Collection, containing a total of 10,000 miniature pieces in 22 separate rooms, has been kept at Nunnington since 1980, and it is well worth a visit for anyone appreciative of miniature craftsmanship, and also for little girls like my daughter who simply love dolls' houses.

We decided to take a look at Nunnington, on the banks of the River Rye, after abandoning plans for a walk because of horrendous weather.

The original house was built in the mid-16th century by William Parr, sister of Henry VIII's sixth and last wife Catherine Parr. But in the 1680s, Viscount Preston, Ambassador to France for Charles II, had the property restored and re-built in the latest French style. Preston later had a close shave with an executioner when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and was only saved from death by the pleas of his daughter. The house was modernised by Colonel Fife in the 1920s and given to the National Trust in 1952 so everyone could enjoy it.

The rooms, furnished with tapestries, period furniture and porcelain, depict different periods in the history of Nunnington, from the Stone Hall, where animal heads and skins from Col Fife's expeditions abroad are displayed, to the Oak Hall with wooden panelling dating back 300 years.

The children were most intrigued by the Panelled Bedroom, which they were told was haunted by a ghost which flies through the panelled walls.

My daughter was both disappointed and relieved when it failed to materialise during our visit.

We were just too late for a snack in the tearooms, but outside the rain had stopped and we went for a wander around the gardens, where the lawns are surrounded by herbaceous borders, clematis, wild flower meadows and orchard.