Trelissick Gardens, National Trust

The garden, countryside, café, shop, plant sales, second-hand bookshop and Cornwall Crafts gallery, with Trelissick House currently having limited opening.

Free entry to the gardens, parking with a cost or free for National Trust members, entry to House £10.90 per adult, concessions and groups available.  Disabled National Trust members are allowed to bring a carer for free. *Check for limitations due to COVID 19 before booking.

A beautiful house and gardens, with rolling countryside and woodlands to explore, this is a place that has put some thought into their disabled access.

There is parking close to the main buildings, plentiful, level and on a hard surface, without marked bays, so you can have as much space as you need. The rest of the parking is on gravel, and not necessarily level.

The disabled loo is well equipped, and well lit, and the café has level access, low surfaces, moveable chairs, and very friendly assistants!  The food is also varied, and delicious.  The gift shop has reasonably wide pathways, but occasional baskets of goods jutting into the walkways.

Without paying for more than the parking, you are permitted to roam in the wider grounds, including sweeping fields rolling down to the Carrick Roads, and a woodland walk that takes you to the King Harry Ferry.  There are some wide, level paths, which are marked clearly on the signage, but not all paths are suitable for wheelchairs, or people with sight loss – beware also of cow pats! A lovely peaceful afternoon can be spent here, without going into the House at all.

If you pay for entrance to the House and Gardens, a whole new world opens up.  Only opened to the public in recent years, Trelissick has been a family home for centuries, and there are plentiful items and furnishings to tell many stories.

At the gate, you can borrow one of 2 simple manual wheelchairs, or a small battery-operated chair, or, if you book in advance, you can borrow the larger electric buggy, for a 1½ hour slot.  This one is capable of climbing some of the steeper paths in the gardens, which are not recommended for the others, but clear route-ways are marked on the maps that are given out with the chairs.  You will be asked to sign a couple of forms, regarding liability, etc, but there is no charge.

The charming gardens are what you would expect from a National Trust property – well maintained, peaceful, true to the history of the house they surround, and fascinating to explore.

There is a manual wheelchair available in the house, so you can swap at the door (they prefer you to keep muddy wheels outside, which is understandable), and all the house which is currently accessible to the public is on the ground floor, so there are no stairs to negotiate for anyone.

For people with sight loss, if you contact the House staff in advance of your visit, they can provide you with a word document describing the exhibits, which you can print out at home, at a size to suit your needs, on appropriate coloured paper if you require it.

In addition to the house and grounds, there are six holiday cottages in the grounds.  Some of these are single storey, and have notes in the booking details regarding accessibility features.  The Engine House states it is suitable for occasional wheelchair users, and ambulant disabled.  Full accessibility statements for all the cottages are available from the Estate Office.

Trelissick staff are working on improving the accessibility of their property, including for people with other than physical disabilities.  Watch this space for details, if they bring new assistance in in the future.

Great for wheelchair users, and mixed family groups.