Category: #50places2026

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Montacute House #50places2026

Montacute house

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. Having also enjoyed my visits across 2025, I made the decision to renew for 2026. There are quite a few properties that I missed in 2025 which I want to visit.

Montacute House

Montacute is a masterpiece of Elizabethan Renaissance architecture and design. With its towering walls of glass, glow of ham stone and surrounding garden and parkland, it is a place of beauty and wonder.

Current saving -£71
One adult £15.00
Parking – Free
Total saving £15.00
Cumulative saving £40
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving -£56

Montacute House

I have been to Montacute House before, but I didn’t visit last year. It’s quite local to me, being just over an hour away by car. I had visited Montacute House before in August 2016 and January 2023.

I didn’t go there last year as part of my membership. The main reason was that the upper floors were closed. The staircases had been closed for safety reasons back in August 2023. They are still closed, but the plans to fix them are now in place.

On both the previous visits the upper floors were open and I was able to walk along the magnificent long gallery on the second floor. This photograph was from my 2023 visit.

I am planning to make a return visit later in the year when the staircases are fixed. After visiting Montacute House I did consider visiting one of the other nearby properties, but they were all closed for the winter. When I do visit them later in the year I might make a quick visit to Montacute House and explore the gardens when they’re dry.

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Marlow #50places2026

Marlow

Marlow is a town on the River Thames in Buckinghamshire, England, 4 miles south of High Wycombe.

I was on my way to London and I needed to charge my car, so rather than stop at the services, I came off the M4 and drove to Marlow planning to eat lunch at the branch of Côte there, which had a special price on their set menu. 

Having arrived in Marlow, I drove to the car park. They had a BP Pulse fast charger (read 11 Kw), so after paying for my parking, I put the Funky Cat on charge. It took me a while as though I thought I had a BP Pulse account, I didn’t, so I had to set one up. It was priced at 65p kWh, so more expensive than a Tesla charger, but cheaper than most public chargers.

I then needed to find the Côte restaurant and discovered on Google Maps it was actually next door to the car park. So, not too far to walk. After eating lunch, the car was still charging, so I went for a walk around Marlow. It’s a pretty town, the bridge over the Thames was particularly impressive.

I was pleased to have reached my fifty places in 2025 for my #50places2025 series of blog posts.

This year I am planning to do something similar with a new hashtag, #50newplaces2026 and it will be the same rules. Each time I visit a place I will post a blog post and some photographs. I can’t repeat places, and in an extra twist I can’t use the fifty places I visited in 2025 in the list as well (though I anticipate visiting some of those places again). 

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Frosty Dyrham Park #50places2026

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. Having also enjoyed my visits across 2025, I made the decision to renew for 2026. There are quite a few properties that I missed in 2025 which I want to visit.

I have been to Dyrham Park before, but I didn’t visit last year. It’s quite local to me, being less than an hour away by car. My last visit was in May 2023, I had also visited back in April 2017.

Dyrham Park

Dyrham Park is a Baroque country house in an ancient deer park near the village of Dyrham in South Gloucestershire, England. The house, with the attached orangery and stable block is a Grade I listed building, while the park is Grade II* listed on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

The current house was built for William Blathwayt in stages during the 17th and early 18th centuries on the site of a previous manor house, with the final facade being designed by William Talman. The house is a fine example of Baroque architecture, with its symmetrical facade, pediment, and Ionic columns. The interior is equally impressive, with its ornate plasterwork, paneling, and furniture.

The parkland at Dyrham is also of great interest. It was landscaped in the 18th century in the style of Capability Brown, with sweeping lawns, lakes, and woodlands. The park is home to a variety of wildlife, including deer, rabbits, and pheasants.

Current saving -£96
One adult £21.00
Parking £4.00
Total saving £25.00
Cumulative saving £25
Membership cost £96
Net cumulative saving -£71

It was a rather frosty day, but the sun was shining. I left it a little time so that it would be less icy and so less slippery.

When I got to Dyrham Park, it was obvious that quite a few other people had the same idea that I had, the car park was heaving and there were lots of people around. 

I walked around the house, something I hadn’t really noticed (or remembered) was how Dutch the house was. Speaking to one of the volunteers it was apparent that in the late 1600s and early 1700s grand houses in England were often influenced by Dutch furnishings and decorations. This was often lost in the 1800s when houses were refurbished or redecorated. This didn’t happen with Dyrham Park.

There are two grand staircases in the house, both of which are rather impressive. 

After exploring the house, I went to the café with the intention of having soup and a scone. Not only was it rather busy, but they didn’t have soup on the menu. I explored the gardens and visited the church next to the house. The parklands were closed due to the weather, so I walked back to the car park using the paths.

This year I have planned to visit fifty (different) places.