Kevin Jackson, author of Bite: A Vampire Handbook, lists his top tips for the county

Leper chapel, Cambridge

If it's eeriness you're after at this time of year, Leper chapel fits the bill nicely. You'll find it just outside Cambridge, on the road to Newmarket, and as its name suggests, it was once the place of worship for a hospital devoted to sufferers of leprosy. Its doors are locked much of the time, but a sign tells you how and where to pick up a key. In recent years it has made a highly atmospheric setting for a variety of dramatic productions, and there are rumours that a local vampire group has applied to stage an event there in 2010.
cambridgeppf.org/leper-chapel.htm

Wandlebury hill fort and the Gog Magog Hills

Just a few miles south of Cambridge, with a fine view over the city from certain points, this area in and around a prehistoric hill fort is a splendid place to walk by anybody's standards, but has been a particular magnet for occultists ever since the 60s, when the maverick archaeologist and advocate of pendulum power, TC Lethbridge, declared that he had discovered the forms of three solar gods hidden just beneath the turf. The fact that conventional archaeologists have declared these figures entirely imaginary has never daunted psychogeographers and other modern antiquarians. While there, be sure to visit the grave of the Godolphin Arabian, great-grandsire of a noble strain of racehorses.

St Wendreda's church, March

Churches with angel roofs are something of an East Anglian speciality, and all are well worth the visit, but the one at St Wendreda's is of mind-expanding intensity. If you can manage it, count the roof figures – there are 120 in all – carrying emblems of the Passion, musical instruments or shields. The church dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries. Uplifting, moving, unforgettable.
stwendreda.co.ukBite: A Vampire Handbook by Kevin Jackson, is published by Portobello Books (£9.99)

Bedford Old and New rivers

So-called because the Earl of Bedford was the head of the group of speculators who set about their creation. Running roughly from Earith north-east towards Wisbech and King's Lynn, these are the largest of the many artificial rivers that were built in the 17th century by English and Dutch engineers to help drain the Great Fen (pictured above), from which much of modern north-eastern Cambridgeshire – including Downham Market and March – has been recovered. Before then, the Fen was a swampy area of sedge and eels – a grey and chilly version of the Florida Everglades. The drainage was a huge act of public engineering, a heroic enterprise – though the locals who were forced out might have had a quarrel with that view. It makes a bracingly bleak walk; or if you're feeling lazy, you can drive alongside it via the B1098 from Chatteris or the B1411 from Ely. A good place to start might be . . .

The Prickwillow Engine Trust and Museum of Fenland Drainage, near Ely

This is the sort of museum that would no doubt make James May feel as if he'd died and gone to heaven. The heart of the collection is a set of six large diesel-pumping engines, five of them rescued from pumping stations around the Fens, and one – the Mirrlees engine – that was used in Prickwillow itself (installed in 1924). As well as a collection of smaller engines, the museum also boasts a series of historical maps, photographs and displays outlining the history of the great drainage, and there are plenty of additional exhibits, including local agricultural tools. An ideal afternoon out for anyone with the faintest feeling for industrial archaeology.
01353 688360, prickwillow-engine-museum.co.uk

The Queen's Head pub, Newton

A superb example of the entirely unreconstructed village pub: stone floors, blazing open fires and walls festooned with antlers and other animal trophies. The food is excellent, particularly the thick and tasty soups which bubble away perpetually, subtly changing consistency and flavour as new ingredients are added. Take friends from abroad – they will swoon. Or go alone, and fantasise that time has stood still for centuries.
Fowlmere Road (01223 870436)