Ickworth, outside Bury St Edmunds, is one of the strangest country houses in England: a great domed Rotunda begun in 1795 for Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, to house the art he gathered on his European travels, with curving wings either side. The house passed to the National Trust in 1956 with its Georgian silver, Regency furniture and paintings. The state rooms take under an hour, leaving time for the Italianate garden and stumpery behind the Rotunda, the rose garden and walled garden, and 1,800 acres of parkland partly laid out by Capability Brown, with the popular Albana Walk, the quieter Lownde Wood loop, an all-weather path used by cyclists, and dogs on leads welcome everywhere outside the house. Reviewers praise the knowledgeable guides, the firm well-signed tracks and the two cafes, with Porter's Lodge the dog-friendly stop. Tips from visitors: follow the brown signs through Horringer rather than the postcode, and ask in the library about the handwritten records of Parliament that predate Hansard.
