National Trust - Cotehele - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

A historic copper port has been restored as an outdoor museum of industrial heritage. See a miner's cottage, waterwheel, assay laboratory, smithy, cooperage, lime kilns and other buildings that create a fascinating experience of the history of the area. This small mine has many features characteristic of the other mines found throughout the Tamar Valley, but here you can actually journey underground and experience something of the working conditions of the miners during the 19th century.

Buckland Abbey was built in the thirteenth century as a Cistercian monastery. It retained its function until the mid-sixteenth century, when Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries. The last Drake descendant to live there was Captain Richard Owen-Tapps-Gervis-Meyrick (1892–1948) who sold the Abbey in 1948, after it had been gutted by fire in 1938.

The Garden House is an exceptional garden on the fringes of Dartmoor in Devon. It's funded entirely by the work of a small charity; 'The Fortescue Garden Trust'. Packed with plants and colors for all seasons, it is well worth visiting most of the year. The tower in the walled garden offers magnificent views of the landscape. There is a new Arboretum which has great displays of colors in the Autumn.

Burrator Reservoir is situated within Dartmoor, and the tranquil water and surrounding mixed woodland contrast sharply with the open moor and the rugged Dartmoor tors. The reservoir is popular with walkers, cyclists, and horse riders due to its wealth of footpaths and bridleways. Many of the trails lead on to Dartmoor so it makes an ideal starting point for longer trips.

The River Lyd rises at Lyd Head by Corn Ridge to the north of Woodcock Hill. It's a flat, boggy landmass that's relatively difficult to walk across. There are the remains of extensive peat works to the southeast of Lyd Head including the evocatively named Bleak House.

Mount Edgcumbe House is the former home of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe. Set in Grade I Cornish Gardens within 865 acres Country Park on the Rame Peninsula, South East Cornwall. It was the ancestral home of the Edgcumbes for over four hundred years and its collections encapsulate the story of this fascinating English aristocratic family. The early gardens, developed around the house, were in an early formal style popular at the time. These were later superseded by the classical style of layout po