Clandon Park

Clandon Park was built in the 1730s for the Onslow family, a Palladian mansion by the Italian architect Giacomo Leoni decorated by leading European sculptors, and a huge fire in April 2015 gutted it, leaving a brick and stone skeleton open to the sky. Rather than recreate what was lost, the National Trust is conserving the house in its post-fire state, repairing the surviving Speakers' Parlour and planning a new roof with public terraces and walkways through the shell. The house remains closed while that work goes on, but the seven-acre garden opens in the warmer months for the lily pond in the Dutch Garden, the 19th-century grotto, a playground and the site of Hinemihi, the Maori meeting house brought from New Zealand by the 4th Earl of Onslow in 1892 and now to be returned home. Dogs are welcome in the garden but not in the house. Reviewers who got inside on a hard-hat tour call it a rare chance to see how a country house was made, down to the hand-made bricks; the garden alone is a short visit, its highlights the Dutch Garden and spring daffodils. One tip: tours run only occasionally, so book before travelling.