FROM Easter trails to Easter bonnet-making and from dinosaurs to giant dragonflies, there is loads to do as the holidays arrive and the days get warmer.

Three of Herefordshire's National Trust properties will be running Easter trails over the holiday weekend - together with Sky, sponsors of their family programme, the NT has hidden more than 1.5 million chocolate eggs in 200 amazing places throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland - and young visitors are invited to scour high and low, leaving no stone unturned in an effort to find every last chocolate treat!

With more eggs than ever being hidden, there'll be more chocolate for everyone. At Berrington Hall, the Easter trail can be followed on Saturday and Sunday and on Sunday at Croft Castle. Berrington is also running Easter-bonnet making workshops.

The Easter Bunny trail is also running at Lower Brockhampton Estate on Sunday and Monday, from noon to 4pm. And when all the eggs have been eaten, visitors can take a tractor and trailer ride to Warren Farm to see Easter chicks, calves, lambs and much much more.

For more information, call Berrington Hall on 01568 615721; Lower Brockhampton Estate on 01885 482077 or Croft Castle on 01568 780246.

At another of Herefordshire's top attractions, Eastnor Castle, chickens provide the theme for an Easter treasure hunt on Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, with a map leading to chickens hidden around the castle and its grounds. A mini chocolate chick will be awarded for successfully completing the clues with one lucky winner every day getting the large chocolate chicken in a basket.

And when the chocolate chickens are gone, there's the chance to make a chicken at the daily workshops and popular children's entertainer Wizard Wonky will be providing some magic moments.

Easter activities at Eastnor run from 11am to 4.30pm on Sunday and Monday.

For more information, call 01531 633160.

Families are really spoilt for choice this holiday, as Hampton Court offers another weekend of fabulous activities. With trails through the gardens and games on the lawns, visitors of all ages can explore one of the most ambitious garden creations, with 10,000 tulips planted for this year.

Look out for magpies hiding among the vegetables in the kitchen garden, frogs lurking in the waters of the sunken garden and hares playing games on the lawn. Flower photographs decorate the walls of the castle courtyard, where master potter Tony Hall will be throwing his trademark huge pots.

Hampton Court's Easter fun runs from Saturday to Monday from 11am to 4pm. For more information, call 01568 797777.

At Ludlow Assembly Rooms, however, there won't be any fluffy bunnies or chirpy chicks over the Easter holidays - instead, there'll be dinosaurs and giant dragonflies, fizzing volcanoes and fascinating fossils in a series of holiday workshops.

Prehistoric fun is the order of the day, starting with Walking the World today (Thursday), when children aged eight and up are invited to help create a massive timeline of millions of years to run throughout the Assembly Rooms.

On Monday, two workshops, for ages nine-plus and six to eight, offer the chance to play a part in making a huge set of what the world looked like when dinosaurs ruled the world, which will be used later in the week for a Prehistoric Play in a Day.

Activities run all week, ending with an exciting archaeology session - Amazing Archaeology - on Friday. For information, including availability, cost and times, call the box office on 01584 878141 or visit www.ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk