Historic Homes
The great houses of the Cornish gentry, from tin-and-copper dynasties to National Trust treasures.
15 places reviewed by Oliver Howes
All with gardens open, too
Lanhydrock
Showing 15 of 15
Antony - Garden and Estate
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Antony House, Garden and Woodland Garden
Antony House is the ancestral home of the Carew Poles who have been here since the late 15th century. Their present home is a charming early Georgian mansion - but with more Christ
Caerhays Castle
The Caerhayes Estate has only changed hands once in over 600 years. But for the profligacy of the man who built the castle, it might not have changed hands then. The Trevanions acq
Cotehele House
We had last been at Cotehele in 1988 so, on a glorious sunny March Sunday in 2003, we decided to re-visit, as we have many times since. Set high above the broad River Tamar, Cotehe
Godolphin House and Estate
The Godolphins were one of Cornwall's great families, wealthy from tin and copper mining and influential at court, but their home degenerated to farmhouse after the line died out i
Lanhydrock House, Garden and Estate
Lanhydrock is the National Trust's most visited Cornish property, though many visitors are locals who come just to enjoy the extensive parkland and woodland gardens (if all you wan
Mount Edgcumbe
Edgcumbe
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is our local 'great house' (our friend Caroline was a guide there) yet we first took a house tour as recently as 2004. The fine Georgian house is the home of the Moleswor
Port Eliot at St. Germans
When the 9th Earl of St. Germans died in 1988 the inheritance taxes due were unaffordable. Eventually a deal was done with government accepting 23 paintings, including 14 portraits
Prideaux Place at Padstow
Home to the Prideauxs (now Prideaux-Brunes) since Edmund acquired the property at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Prideaux Place looks from the outside like an ivy-clad minor R
St. Benet's Abbey near Lanivet
Benet's Abbey near Lanivet
St. Michael's Mount and its Garden
The first sight of St Michael's Mount is breathtaking; the house seems to grow out of the rocky bluff that tops the tiny island. Access is unusual; at high tide by boat, at low tid
Trerice - A Small Cornish Manor near Newquay
Trerice must be one of the National Trust's smallest homes. A former seat of the Arundells, well connected Cornish gentry, also of Efford in Bude and Lanherne in St. Mawgan, it is
Trerice Revisited 2007
Our last visit to Trerice was, we think, in 2002. The exterior of the house remains, not unexpectedly, unchanged since then. The contents have changed a little, unsurprisingly sinc
Trewithen
Philip Hawkins, wealthy Cornish attorney, acquired the estate in 1715. He employed London architect Thomas Edwards to build a new house and began a woodland garden to set it off. D