Tredegar House

Tredegar House on the edge of Newport is one of the most significant late 17th-century houses in the British Isles, a red-brick mansion that was home to the Morgan family, later Lords Tredegar, for more than 500 years. The rooms are shown across eras, from the state rooms to Victorian and 1920s settings and the servants' world below stairs, and outside are three formal gardens and 90 acres of free-to-walk parkland with an ornamental lake, woodland and 20 acres of off-lead space for dogs. The Brewhouse cafe sits in the Home Farm yard beside a volunteer-run second-hand bookshop. Reviewers single out the house guides, whose stories of the eccentric Morgans keep children engaged, plus the lake walk and the bookshop. Tips from regulars: members and Blue Badge holders park free while others pay, sat navs send you astray so follow Pencarn Way and the brown signs, and dogs must be on leads near the house.