Mount Edgcumbe House

Mount Edgcumbe House stands on the Rame Peninsula in south-east Cornwall, overlooking Plymouth Sound. The stately home and its Grade I-listed gardens form part of a country park managed by Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council. The estate was the principal seat of the Edgcumbe family from Tudor times, whose members served as MPs before Richard Edgcumbe became Baron Edgcumbe in 1742. His son George later became Earl in 1789. The original house, built between 1547 and 1553, was destroyed in 1941 during the Second World War and restored in the late 1950s. The estate is one of South East Cornwall’s most popular historic attractions, with the country park offering the earliest landscaped grounds in Cornwall. The park includes the National Camellia Collection and hosts events such as an annual classic car show and art classes led by Louise Courtnell. Walkers can follow paths from Cremyll Ferry through the property to the villages of Kingsand and Cawsand. The park also contains several historic features, including a Bronze Age burial mound and a 16th-century fort built during Henry VIII’s Device Forts programme. Visitors find a mix of formal gardens in Italian, English and French styles, along with newer additions like the New Zealand and American gardens. The Orangery, once part of the Italian Garden, now serves as a licensed restaurant. Milton’s Temple, built around 1755, bears lines from John Milton’s *Paradise Lost*. The estate’s stables, dating from the mid-19th century, are open to visitors, as is St Mary’s and St Julian’s Church, which includes the Edgcumbe Chapel. The park’s shoreline features the Blockhouse fort and the Cremyll Ferry, a medieval crossing still in use today.