National Trust - South Somerset

Visited here on a sunny Sunday morning, along with most of the West Country, it seemed. The car park was packed, with no supervision and cars moving in every direction. But, once we got parked, everything was fine!The welcome was efficient and friendly, the gardens around the house immaculate and the outside of the house is very photogenic. There are country walks (with grazing animals, so mind your feet) and picnic areas (albeit with limited seating). The house itself was splendid, a real eye-opener for how the 'other half ' ' lived, If you 're interested, there 's also a very good exhibition of portraits from Tudor times in the top floor gallery.The toilets were immaculate, the gift shop well stocked and not too pricey. We took a picnic, so didn 't try the very busy cafe

Very busy the staff were frazzled. Usually really enjoy eating at NT places not this time the food was dry.

Well worth a visit for both the gardens and the house. There is a large expanse of open meadow where dogs can run. The tea rooms in the stable yard offer wholesome food recommend the red pepper and tomato quiche,

I go every week to park run at montacute house.The coffee is always nice. The staff don't seem to be very organised every week we normally have to queue for so long for our coffee. We've waited 45mins before now that's longer than it actually took me to run the park run. It's sad as their are a lot of people there every week they should take advantage of this, as some people now go elsewhere for their post run coffee.

From the moment we entered the reception area our family and dog were made very welcome. The reception staff ensured we knew what facilities were available for our dog which was very important as it was a very hot day. The café, of which the outside courtyard welcomes dogs, was busy but we found a table shaded by both a tree and an umbrella. The food was of good quality. Though busy the staff were extremely polite and very quick to clear tables and deliver hot food. The shop was promoting a new hand scrub product by local producer Tam Mason who was on site to explain and demonstrate the product. Samples were ingeniously in both ladies and men's toilets to try .. so we had to buy! The retail Manager, Ashling, was exceptional with customer young and not so young. A short but exceptional visit all round. We want to go back to explore the house and gardens more soon.