Mount Edgcumbe House & Country Park 'The Historic Park by the Sea for Everyone' - Preparing for a new Conservation Management Plan 2025-2035

Mount Edgcumbe Country Park is a much-valued listed landscape based on the Rame Peninsula, in Southeast Cornwall.

This free-to-the-public open space and heritage asset is managed by a dedicated team of officers and rangers reporting to a Joint Committee of Plymouth City Council and Cornwall Council.

We are about to embark on an exciting phase of development for this important local landscape as we plan to produce a new Conservation Management Plan, including a renewed vision, for Mount Edgcumbe Country Park. This important document will set out the maintenance, management and development priorities for Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, as well as informing any future business development opportunities across the site.

We’d like to involve local communities, visitors and other interested stakeholders at the start of this process – and we’d like to hear from you. You can contribute to this process by completing the survey below.

Historic parks and gardens are an important, distinctive, and much cherished part of our heritage and we have a duty to care for them. The landscape of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park is Grade 1 listed within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by Historic England for its special historic interest.

Over the past ten years the Mount Edgcumbe Joint Committee and the Country Park Team have set out and delivered a programme to develop and sensitively manage the house and landscape from a position of significant annual financial deficit to a cost-neutral position. This has been effectively achieved, along with a range of other services and enhancements that continue to deliver benefits for local communities and visitors alike.

A series of business development and management plans has been approved by the Joint Committee and delivered by the Mount Edgcumbe team. These recognise the historic and heritage significance of the Country Park landscape and assets.

In everything they do, the Mount Edgcumbe Country Park team has addressed and incorporated relevant policies and strategic objectives of the two responsible local authorities, as well as the most recent and relevant conservation plans and reports commissioned for Mount Edgcumbe (see Key Documents).

During 2023, the Mount Edgcumbe Joint Committee agreed that an updated Conservation Management Plan should be produced. This should ensure that the recent successful phase of landscape management is built upon. The Plan will ensure that the management of the listed landscape and heritage assets balance visitor and community benefits whilst enhancing environmental stewardship including positive biodiversity and climate resilience outcomes.

Recent Achievements at Mount Edgcumbe Country Park

Notable outcomes from the delivery of Joint Committee-approved management plans over recent years include:

• Meeting the effectively cost-neutral financial targets required by the local authority partners (on a turnover of c.£1m p.a.) while maintaining free-entry.
• c.£4.5m of funding attracted, for improvements including the Garden Battery, two Deer Houses, Milton’s Temple, Garden Seats, Lady Emma’s Cottage, Countryside Stewardship, et al.
• Lady Emma’s Cottage secured for Mount Edgcumbe, at a value of £0.5m via a generous local benefactor. Adds to the successfully expanded and highly-rated portfolio of on-site holiday and visitor accommodation.
• Consistently high visitor ratings (top 10%) on Trip Advisor, and c.250,000 visitors every year.
• Renowned and well-established events programme throughout summer and the ‘shoulder months’.
• 26 local businesses accommodated, employing 60-80 people.
• Strong partnerships with key stakeholders including Historic England, Natural England, Cornwall National Landscape (AONB), Plymouth Sound National Marine Park, and the Friends of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park community group.
• Educational links and volunteering opportunities – these have been rebuilt post-Covid. We currently have >800 members of our successful Friends of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park group and offer lots of volunteering opportunities for people and organisations that like to offer practical support for Mount Edgcumbe Country Park.

Next Steps

Key stakeholders will oversee the drafting of a Conservation Management Plan during 2024. They will report to the Joint Committee.

The project will have two major elements:

• The State of the Assets review (condition surveys of on-site assets, including 56 listed buildings).
• The Conservation Management Plan (drafting delivered between March-November 2024).

The Conservation Management Plan will include the review of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park’s vision, existing plans and relevant documentation. It will consider various elements including governance, resilience, sustainability and future opportunities.

Public consultation is anticipated in early 2025 followed by formal adoption by the Summer.

For any other queries, please contact: mt.edgcumbe@plymouth.gov.uk