Lanhydrock
A number of local guidebooks state that Lanhydrock is the grandest stately home in Cornwall, and there must some truth in this, as the National Trust claim it is the most visited house in England. There are over 50 rooms on show and extensive gardens parklands and woodlands.
Lanhydrock dates back to the 1600s and belonged to the Robartes family, the local tin-mining tycoons. The house was rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1881. All that remains of the original is the magnificent long gallery, with an antique plaster ceiling featuring scenes from the Old Testament, and the granite fireplace in the hall.
The National Trust have maintained the estate since the 1950s, and rather than trying to restore its lost Jacobean legacy, they have concentrated on its 19th century heritage. A visit to Lanhydrock has been described as a being ‘lost in a long Victorian afternoon’, and fans of the TV hits Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey will know exactly what is meant. It is as if the aristocratic family have left for a day out, and you have been invited in to spy on their lifestyles, their passions, and their curt relationships with their servants.