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The Triangular Lodge at Rushton, Northants, is a highly unusual building. Everything about it is linked to the number three. It has three 33-foot walls, each with three trefoil windows and three gables, and there are three storeys rising to a three-sided central chimney.

The lodge was designed and built by Sir Thomas Tresham between 1593 and 1597. He was a staunch Catholic and as a result was imprisoned for 15 years by the Elizabethan Protestant government. During his prolonged captivity he covered his cell walls with letters, dates, numbers and religious symbols, and on his release in 1593 he began to design the Triangular Lodge as a covert testament to his faith. All of its features – emblems, dates, gargoyles, shields and biblical passages – are said to relate to the Holy Trinity and the Catholic Mass. Thomas’s son Francis was one of the Catholics later involved in the Gunpowder Plot.

Legend has it that a secret tunnel leads from the lodge and when it was discovered the owner of the lodge offered a large sum of money to anyone who would go down and investigate it. A gypsy fiddler took up the offer, but had only gone a few yards, playing his fiddle as he went, when the tunnel collapsed. Some say he died there, but others say that after a while he arrived in Australia. Either way, the sound of his ghostly fiddle has been heard coming from the ground!

The Triangular Lodge, Nr Rushton, Northants NN14 1RG; Tel: (01536) 710761 or (01536) 205411; Website: www.english-heritage.org.uk

The lodge lies a mile west of Rushton on an unclassified road and three miles from Desborough on the A6. Parking is limited. Open Thursdays–Mondays 1 April–31 October 10 a.m.–5 p.m. No unauthorized visits at other times.