Hill of Tarvit Mansion & Garden

Hill of Tarvit is an Edwardian country house outside Cupar, rebuilt in 1906 by Sir Robert Lorimer for Frederick Sharp, a Dundee jute magnate, to hold his French furniture, Flemish tapestries, Chinese porcelain and Scottish paintings, and the Sharps lived in it for barely forty years before it passed to the National Trust for Scotland in 1949. Lorimer laid out the gardens too, with terraces, yew hedges, borders and a sunken rose garden, and the estate keeps the family's leisure intact: a hickory golf course of 1924 played with period clubs, croquet, putting and lawn bowls, snooker in the house, and a walk to the top of Tarvit Hill for views over Fife. The below-stairs rooms show the laundry, kitchen and servants' quarters. Reviewers praise the volunteers' stories and the cafe scones. Tips from visitors: the house is by guided tour Thursday to Saturday and self-guided on Sundays, closed early in the week; and the grounds and hill are free to walk with dogs on leads.