Lanhydrock House & Gardens

by coach & on foot

The National Trust’s Lanhydrock is a magnificent late Victorian country house with garden and wooded estate.

Having made your way ashore using the ship’s tenders, a short walk including some steps will bring you to the coach parking area. Having embarked your coach, relax and enjoy the passing scenery during the approximately 30-minute drive to Lanhydrock.

Lanhydrock stands testament to a time of grand and gracious living, with armies of servants and constant streams of well-heeled visitors entertained by sophisticated dinners and turns in the manicured gardens. Your visit offers a glimpse of these storied days, as your coach ventures along the avenue that climbs gently through the park to reveal the gatehouse and, behind it, the impressive grey house and little church nearby.

The original house, which dated to the 1620s, was extensively remodelled and expanded into a fashionable Victorian manor in 1857. Just 24 years later, the house was ravaged by fire, with only the north wing with its superb 17th century gallery and plasterwork surviving the blaze. Undaunted, the 2nd Baron Robartes rebuilt Lanhydrock, reconstructing it into a fine example of neo-Jacobean style. Inside, the house was modernized to late 19th century standards of comfort and convenience. With its careful separation of public and private, master and servant, male and female, Lanhydrock today paints a vivid picture of the ‘High Victorian’ world.

You will have free time to visit the house and gardens. A total of 49 rooms are on display, together reflecting the entire spectrum of life in a rich and splendid Victorian household. Encounter servants’ quarters, the fascinating complex of kitchens and larders, the nursery suite, and the dining room with its table laid and ready for an elegant feast. Surrounding the house are gardens ranging from formal Victorian parterres to the wooded higher garden, where lush displays of magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias climb the hillside to merge with the woods of oak and beech. Certainly you will understand why Lanhydrock, a National Trust property since 1953, is one of the Trust’s ten most visited paid-entry attractions.

Before rejoining your coach for the return transfer to Fowey, you may wish to purchase refreshments from the cafe or browse the gift shop for a souvenir of your visit.