Montacute House was built in the 1590s for Sir Edward Phelips, the lawyer who opened the prosecution of the Gunpowder Plotters, and its honey-coloured Ham Hill stone front, with statues of the Nine Worthies between the windows, makes it one of the best-preserved Elizabethan houses in England. The top-floor Long Gallery, at 172 feet the longest in the country, shows Tudor and Jacobean portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, and the house doubled as Greenwich Palace in the BBC's Wolf Hall. The gardens combine yew topiary, herbaceous borders, twin garden pavilions and an orangery; a 30-minute walk up St Michael's Hill reaches the 18th-century folly tower and views across south Somerset. Reviewers like the cafe, with indoor and outdoor seating, and rate the gift shop and second-hand bookshop above the usual. One important tip from visitors: the staircases are being repaired, so at present only the ground floor is open and the Long Gallery cannot be seen; check before making a long trip.
