The Best National Trust Scones (So Far)

The National Trust Scone Blog is one this weekend! Happy Birthday, blog! 

I thought it only right to thank all of the National Trust properties that have made the past 12 months so sconetabulous.

We've visited 50 properties this year in 23 counties, and we've eaten 70 scones. 4 properties had no scones but 17 - yes 17! - were awarded the Scone D'Or for scone excellence! 

Eyes down for the full list of 17, in order of visit:

Stowe

It costs £30,000 a year to send your child to school at Stowe. I've worked out that you could get around 17,647 scones for that. I know which one I'd spend my money on. Educate yourself (ha!) about the Stowe scones...

Charlecote Park
William Shakespeare was once caught stealing a scone from Charlecote Park. It forced him to leave Warwickshire for London. Did I say scone? I meant deer. The scones at Charlecote were scone perfection though, so it's an easy mistake to make. Read more about the scones at Charlecote Park...

Bateman's
"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And continue with your National Trust Scone Mission just the same" - I'm paraphrasing one-time Bateman's resident Rudyard Kipling a bit there, but it's an apt motto for the scone blogger. We definitely met Scone Triumph at Bateman's - read more about the Bateman's scones...

Claremont Landscape Garden
Claremont surprised us on many levels. First, it's more of a lovely big park than a garden. Second, it served the fluffiest scones we had ever seen (until we went to Standen a week later). Read about Claremont's scones... 

Standen

Standen deliver when it comes to scones - we thought nothing could outfluff Claremont's scone but we were wrong. Tests proved that the Standen scone was genetically closer to a cloud than a baked foodstuff. Read about the Standen scone...

Nymans

"You must go to Nymans in West Sussex," I was told by about 8 million people "because it is absolutely wonderful and the scones are delicious." I finally went and it was absolutely wonderful and the scones were delicious. You must go there. Read about Nymans scones...

Waddesdon Manor

It might look like a tornado has picked up a French chateau and dropped it just off the M40, but Waddesdon near Aylesbury ticks every box in the scone blogger's guide to National Trust awesomeness, ie it has an audio guide and the scone was perfect in every way. Read about the Waddesdon scone...

Scotney Castle 

I spent 20 minutes of my time at Scotney Castle in Kent sheltering under a tree from a torrential downpour. I was never so pleased to see a pot of tea and a scone in all my life. And the scones were EPIC. Scotney also won credit for having a Banana and Walnut Scone of the Month, and for Richard Gere, who filmed Yanks there. Read all about the Scotney scones...

Dunwich Heath

I came home from my Dunwich Heath mission near Ipswich in need of therapy and a 3-day gym session - they had 20 TYPES OF SCONE at their Sconeathon in March, including Sticky Toffee, Chocolate Orange, Malteser...it would be easier to think of things they hadn't included. The Sticky Toffee Scone left us uncharacteristically speechless. Read about the Dunwich Sconeathon...

Morden Hall Park
Our first scone mission of 2014 was not the frosty, blue-skied January experience we expected, but the biblical deluge made the scones at Morden Hall Park in South London all the more welcome. They were phenomenal - big, warm, and glazed (a first). 'Morden enough' to warrant a five out of five (ha ha ha! Sorry.) Read about the Morden Hall Park scones...

Sutton House
Hackney is famous for many things - marshes, young men growing massive beards - but the National Trust scone blogger is going to add SCONES to that list. Sir Ralph Sadleir, who appears in the book Wolf Hall, built Sutton House and it's well worth a visit. Read about the Sutton House scones...

Quarry Bank Mill

Quarry Bank Mill near Wilmslow is a big and slightly troubling place, if you allow yourself to dwell on the misery of the lives of the orphans that slaved there in dreadful conditions in the 19th century. The scone was big but not troubling at all - it was just delicious. Read about Quarry Bank Mill's scone...

Flatford Bridge Cottage

Alright, we helped bake the scones at Flatford but that's not why we gave them 5 out of 5. We gave them 5 because they were mince pie scones and they were ruddy delicious. The cottage and landscape where John Constable painted The Hay Wain were stunning too. Read about the Flatford scones...

Winkworth Arboretum
They keep the scones in a bread bin at Winkworth Arboretum, which caused some initial palpitations that they didn't have any. We forgave them for our distress though when we tasted the scones. Read about the Winkworth scones...

Houghton Mill
The scone blogger will admit to having been extremely hungover on the day she visited Houghton Mill (the night before had been the party for her first schoolfriend to turn 40, enough said) and a scone was quite literally the last thing she wanted to eat, but the Houghton scone, baked with flour milled on-site, was too delicious to be resisted. Read about the Houghton Mill scone...

Brownsea Island
We didn't see any of the things that Brownsea is famous for (scouts, red squirrels and John Lewis employees), but we did see some magnificent scones. Read about the Brownsea Island scone...

Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle is one of those castles that looks like it was drawn by a 6 year-old - a true fortress in every sense of the word. Bodiam also delivered scones that were delicious in every sense of the word too - our very first 5 out of 5, setting the benchmark for all others. Read about the Bodiam Castle scone...

This is the tip of the iceberg, though - there are hundreds of other National Trust properties, many of which have amazing scones that we need to try. 

A quick bit of maths suggests that the National Trust Scone Odyssey will take around 5 years to complete but we'll soldier on in our quest. 

I'm going to end by thanking all the sconepals that have tweeted and Facebooked and everything else this year - you're all sconetabulous.