From coast to country to moorland and further afield the glorious landscape of Devon has many National Trust properties. We have compiled a short list that we think you will enjoy!
Coleton Fishacre
The country home of the D’Oyly Carte family, this is a unique 1920’s style house with the most jar dropping gardens that offers incredible sea views! This country home is imbued with Art Deco elegance. A light, joyful atmosphere fills the rooms, and music plays, echoing the family’s Gilbert and Sullivan connections. You can get an insight into 1920s life ‘upstairs and downstairs from the glamorous Saloon and the airy servants’ rooms.
However, it is the RHS accredited garden that really takes your breath away! With viewpoints that give enticing glimpses out to sea, paths weave through glades past tranquil ponds, and tender plants from the Mediterranean, South Africa and New Zealand thrive in the moist and sheltered valley.
Knightshayes
Discover Knightshayes a great post-war garden, 19th-century parkland and grand Gothic Revival architecture by Victorian visionary William Burges. With acres of glorious garden and park, surrounding a spectacular Gothic Revival house, Knightshayes is the complete country gentleman’s dream. The house is full of quirks and curiosities, it is a house of many faces.
The woodland garden is one of the finest and most varied plant collections in the country. With over 1200 plant species unique to Knightshayes and an ever-changing display, it’s always worth a visit, as is the walled kitchen garden, brimming with seasonal produce for the Stables Café.
Saltram
A house full of treasures, stories & intrigue. A secret garden to lose yourself in, plus a park that cyclists, walkers, & four-legged friends love. Saltram overlooks the river Plym and is set in a rolling landscape park that provides precious green space on the outskirts of Plymouth. Strolling along the riverside or through the woodland, you can almost forget that the city lies so close. The garden is mostly 19th century, with a working 18th-century orangery and follies, beautiful shrubberies and imposing specimen trees providing year-round interest.
Saltram House is magnificently decorated, with original contents including Chinese wallpapers and an exceptional collection of paintings (several by Sir Joshua Reynolds). It also has a superb country house library and Robert Adam’s Neo-classical Saloon.
Greenway
In the words of its famous resident, Agatha Christie ‘Greenway house and gardens is the loveliest place in the world.’
This is the place where Agatha and her family would spend their summers and Christmases here with friends, relaxing by the river, playing croquet and reading her latest mystery to their guests. The family were great collectors, the house is filled with many important collections including first editions of her novels. It is also home to archaeological artefacts acquired in the Middle East where Agatha accompanied her husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan on excavations.
In the garden a large and romantic woodland drifts down the hillside towards the Dart estuary. The walled gardens are home to a restored peach house and vinery, as well as an allotment cared for by local school children. A visit to Greenway isn’t complete without seeing the Boathouse, scene of the crime in ‘Dead Man’s Folly’, and the battery complete with cannon.
Compton Castle
A dramatic fortified manor house and small formal garden. This medieval fortress with high curtain walls, towers and a portcullis, is set in a landscape of rolling hills and orchards. Compton Castle is a bewitching mixture of romance and history. It has been home to the Gilbert family for nearly 600 years, including Sir Humphrey Gilbert – half-brother to Sir Walter Raleigh.
You can wander round this charming small castle’s gardens, great hall and sub solar, and peer into the Chapel and medieval kitchen.
Note: unfortunately, we cannot take credit or debit card payments.
Parke
A peaceful retreat set within the beautiful Devon countryside. There’s something for everyone at Parke, found on the outskirts of the small market town of Bovey Tracey, gateway to mystical Dartmoor. You can walk from the town (about one mile) or stop off as you drive to the open moor, where the next stop is the rugged crag of Haytor. This compact estate was once the home of a wealthy local family and probably enabled them to be self-sufficient for all their day-to-day needs with a vegetable garden, fruit garden and orchard, cold house, fish pond, grazing meadows for livestock and beehives for honey and gardens to wander in for spiritual refreshment.
Take a short stroll around the garden, or a longer more strenuous walk through the woodlands and along the river to the medieval weir. Along the way, keep your eyes peeled for a myriad of wildlife and a host of wild flowers.
Here are some useful links with more information on all the above places, enjoy!
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionsouthwest/devon
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lists/great-gardens-in-devon
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