The National Trust Scone Quest is complete! I found my final scone on March 1st 2023 at the Giant's Causeway, and very relieved I was to see it too.
This project has taken almost 10 years. Every August, I've celebrated the anniversary of its creation by producing the National Trust Scone Blog Birthday Honours List. These lists contain all of the National Trust properties that scored top marks when I visited, achieving 5 out of 5 for their scones.
And so the time has come to produce ONE LIST TO RULE THEM ALL: the definitive list of all the 5-star National Trust scones that I encountered during my odyssey.
The final scores on the doors are as follows:
- 244 National Trust properties visited!
- 46 counties covered!
- 99 scones scored a 5 out of 5 top rating!
The 99 first class scones in reverse order of when I visited:
- Giant's Causeway - the final scone that completed the quest! I'll be honest: my overriding emotion on the day was relief that there was a scone at all. The fact that it was a 5-star beauty was a giant-sized bonus.
- Divis & the Black Mountain - Divis didn't sell scones when I visited in 2019. I got a tip-off that "a mean cherry scone" was now on the menu, so I went back. My sources were correct: it was on the menu and it was mean (in a good way).
- Greyfriars House & Garden - being a) British and b) not posh, I couldn't bring myself to ring a little bell for service first time I visited - which meant no scone. So I went back and the scone was ring-a-ding-a-ding-dong excellent.
- Prior Park - I'd had to settle for carrot cake in 2015 when I first visited, but I went back and boy am I glad I did: a first class scone for the park built by the man who was Deputy Postmaster.
- Crook Hall Gardens: the National Trust kept things interesting for me in my final year by opening new cafes - this one in Durham involved a long day-trip but it was worth it for a brilliant scone.
- Castle Drogo: I spotted some stunt scones in the drawing room at Castle Drogo - always a sign that they take scones seriously. And they did: the ones in the cafe were excellent.
- Dunstable Downs - the town of Dunstable and I had fallen out many years ago, but stunning views and stunning scones means all is forgiven.
- Carnewas at Bedruthan - it's not strictly an NT scone as it's a tenant-run cafe but it was excellent so I'm including it.
- Godolphin - an absolute showstopper of a scone served in a former pigsty in a fantastic property. If Godolphin isn't on your list, add it immediately!
- Brean Down - never trust a bus timetable on Good Friday but you can trust the Brean Down scones to be brilliant.
- Aira Force and Ullswater - William Wordsworth wrote a poem about Aira Force and he'd have written one about the scone if he'd known about them.
- Claife Viewing Station - the scone was triangular, suggesting it was a tenant-run scone and not strictly NT. But it was so good it deserves to be included anyway.
- Ormesby Hall - a scone needs to be good when you travel all the way from London to Middlesbrough and back in a day for it. And it was spectacular.
- East Riddlesden Hall - another excellent scone that was snatched from the jaws of disaster when another cafe closed early, this time due to Storm Eunice.
- Ilam, Dovedale and the White Peak - people ask if I'm jam first or cream first. I never divulge but I will tell you that when I visit a property, I'm scone first. None of this earning it lark. It paid off at Ilam as the tea room closed due to Storm Malik and we only just got our excellent scone.
- Stackpole - after six months of lockdown, I made a bid for freedom in September 2020 and made it to Pembrokeshire for a fantastic scone.
- Wentworth Castle Gardens - little did I know when I set off for Barnsley in March that it would be my last National Trust scone for months. Lucky I ate two.
- Lavenham Guildhall - it hasn't always had the happiest of histories but the scones made me very cheerful indeed. Absolute perfection.
- Fell Foot - my attempt to eat three scones in one day in the Lake District got off to a promising start at Fell Foot. It subsequently won Scone of the Year 2019.
- Cotehele - here's a top tip: it always bodes well when the property has a mill that produces flour for the scones.
- Buckland Abbey - previous owner Sir Francis Drake might have a bit of a questionable history but there was nothing questionable about the scones.
- Antony: I loved Antony. I loved the name, I loved the house, I loved the scones, and I loved the fact that there's a street called Sconner Road nearby (check the photos).
- Florence Court - located near a mountain where a legendary horse appears every July to talk to people (and have a scone I hope, as they're good).
- The Argory - you can get there by canoe but however you get there, make sure you have one of their superb scones.
- Dudmaston - there was a wand workshop going on when I visited and the scones had indeed been touched by magic.
- Kinver Edge and the Rock Houses - people lived in these caves until the 1960s and although rock buns may have been more apposite, the scones were super.
- Arlington Court - see the house, visit the National Trust Carriage Museum, but definitely don't miss the excellent scones.
- Dunster Castle - a very old estate with a working water mill, a leather room, and very good scones.
- Watersmeet - the beautiful place that inspired me to keep going with the National Trust Scone Blog did not disappoint. Excellent scones.
- Mottistone Gardens - Benedict Cumberbatch wasn't there but we did find some very superb scones.
- Kinder, Edale, and the Dark Peak - the Pennypot Cafe is next door to Edale station. Kinder Scout is not. But we all know which part of the property is most important.
- Erddig - donkeys, a thief housekeeper who stole £30,000, and fantastic scones can all be found at Erddig.
- Oxburgh Hall - everybody loves a moat and everybody good scones. Oxburgh has both.
- Croft Castle - Owain Glyndŵr may be buried under the floor but they don't bury the scone baking talent at this cosy castle.
- Nunnington Hall - I went to try and solve a mysterious peacock murder case and found some very excellent scones.
- The Workhouse - I was certainly tempted to say "please, sir, I want some more" but I restrained myself, although the scones were excellent.
- Shugborough Estate - the ancestral home of society photographer Patrick Lichfield was a picture! Ha ha!
- Chirk Castle - murder, scandal, adultery, violence, great scones...it's all going on at Chirk.
- Longshaw Estate and Eastern Moors - I thought the mud might defeat me, but no - I finally found my Peak District scone and marvellous it was too.
- Mount Stewart - was Castlereagh a great statesman or a despicable murderer? I don't know but I do know that the scones at Mount Stewart were fantastic.
- Peckover House & Garden - Lonely Planet has just announced that a cream tea at Peckover is one of the top eating experiences in the world! I concur!
- Clumber Park - it might have lost its house to the demolition men but Clumber offers beautiful gardens, a beautiful lake, and beautiful scones!
- The Needles Old Battery - chalk rocks, guns, secret missile testing. And now - outstanding scones!
- Wicken Fen - home to 9,000 species of wildlife, flora, fauna and a first-class species of scone! Bravo.
- Berrington Hall - even Capability Brown couldn't improve the scones at Berrington Hall - they were berri-good!
- Tyntesfield - maybe one day someone will describe Tyntesfield without saying "the man who built it made his money from Peruvian bird poo" but that day isn't today. The scones were a bird poo-free zone.
- Sudbury Hall - a great house AND the Museum of Childhood starring Sooty and Sindy AND an outstanding scone! What more do you want from life.
- Melford Hall - famed for its celebrity resident, the original Jemima Puddleduck! Her views on scones are not known.
- Wallington - the former home of Charles Edward Trevelyan, the third most hated man in Ireland (after Oliver Cromwell and Thierry Henry), who was name-checked in The Fields of Athenry.
- Belton House - the kids book and 80s TV show, Moondial, was set at Belton! And when I tweeted that I'd been there, the actor who played Tom responded! Fantastic.
- Felbrigg Hall - poor old William Frederick 'Mad' Windham - all he wanted to do was dress up as a train guard and blow a whistle on the station platform at inopportune moments. Instead he ran up huge debts and lost Felbrigg. Amazing scone.
- Hidcote - a beautiful garden built by "a dull little man" according to James Lees-Milne but we loved it AND we loved the scones!
- Plas Newydd - a fantastic scone on Anglesey! We only really went there to see the Victorian dude who dressed like Noddy Holder 50 years before Nodders was born!
- Dyrham Park - superb scones AND free 17th century hot chocolate (the recipe is from the 17th century, not the actual hot chocolate)!
- Trengwainton Garden - the 5th NT scone we'd eaten in 48 hours during our Tour of Cornwall and it was FAB!
- Trerice - a quiet little manor house near the not-so-quiet town of Newquay, with AMAZING scones!
- Trelissick - the house may be relatively new to the NT but they've certainly got to grips with the scones!
- Boscastle - a little Cornish fishing village that was almost washed away in 2004 - unusual scones but absolutely top-rate!
- Acorn Bank - the third top-class scone on the Spring Tour to the Lake District!
- Sizergh Castle - amazing scone AND a copy of Wham!'s Greatest Hits!
- Wordsworth House - I was moved to compose a poem about the Wordsworth House scone - I expect a call about being Poet Laureate any day!
- Saltram - everything went wrong on our first trip of 2016, apart from the scone!
- Fountains Abbey - it was in the video for Maid of Orleans by OMD! And it had fantastic scones!
- Lanhydrock - our first foray into Cornwall and we were not disappointed! Fantastic scone!
- Biddulph Grange Garden - they had a singing tree and a golden water buffalo but nothing could upstage the scones!
- Nostell Priory - one of the best properties EVER with THREE types of scone!
- Coughton Court - 7 of the 13 Gunpowder Plotters were Throckmortons! Somehow they kept hold of Coughton and are still there today!
- Tredegar House - fantastic scones AND they keep a Dalek in the stables (Doctor Who is filmed there)!
- Anglesey Abbey - they have a working flour mill! You can buy bags of flour that you transform into scones that won't be as good as the ones here!
- Montacute House - they filmed Wolf Hall here! If only Anne Boleyn had been able to bake scones like these, it could all have turned out differently!
- Goddards - brilliant scones at the house once owned by Noel Terry, of Chocolate Orange fame! There used to be a Terry's Chocolate Apple as well!
- Beningbrough Hall - spectacular works of art (and a few pictures on loan from the National Portrait Gallery as well, boom, boom!)
- Sissinghurst Castle - did you see the scones, Orlando? They were great - and fantastic gardens too, in the former home of Vita Sackville-West!
- South Foreland Lighthouse - excellent sconeage in this 'shining' example of a National Trust property HA HA!
- The White Cliffs of Dover - I really was inspired to ransack the Vera Lynn back catalogue and sing "we'll meet again" to the WCoD scone - it was that good.
- Speke Hall - it has the River Mersey, it has a priest hole, it has a baker on Twitter, it has fantastic scones, I LOVED it!
- Studland Beach - famous for the UK's most popular naturist beach, for inspiring Noddy's Toytown, and now for very good scones!
- A la Ronde - a round house full of trinkets AND fantastic scones, what more do you want from life?
- Upton House and Gardens - a lot of pictures, an outdoor swimming pool, and truly excellent scones!
- Treasurer's House, York - they had a Christmas pudding scone with brandy butter that I literally still dream about!
- Hinton Ampner - lots of sheep and fantastic scones!
- Uppark - burned to the ground a few years ago while it was open to visitors, but now restored and serving very excellent scones!
- Stowe - it costs £30,000 a year to attend Stowe school - I'd rather spend that on scones, personally!
- Charlecote Park - William Shakespeare was once caught stealing a scone from Charlecote Park. Did I say scone? I meant deer.
- Bateman's - "Well I'm the king of the sconers/the tea-room VIP", as Rudyard Kipling would have written if he'd had scones at Batemans!
- Claremont Landscape Garden - more of a park than a garden but who's counting - the scones were fantastic!
- Standen - tests proved that the Standen scone was genetically closer to a cloud than a baked foodstuff!
- Nymans - another place that burned down (before the National Trust was involved), now serving amazing scones!
- Waddesdon Manor - they have a mechanical elephant that flaps its ears at Waddesdon but as an attraction it's no match for the top-class scones!
- Scotney Castle - the scones were EPIC. Scotney also had a Banana and Walnut Scone of the Month and Richard Gere, who filmed Yanks there!
- Dunwich Heath - they had 20 TYPES OF SCONE at the Sconeathon we attended! Sticky Toffee, Chocolate Orange, Apple & Cinnamon, Malteser...!
- Morden Hall Park - big, warm, and glazed. 'Morden enough' to warrant a five out of five (ha ha ha! Sorry.)
- Sutton House - Sir Ralph Sadleir of Wolf Hall fame built Sutton House - go along and see them bring out the sconies!
- Quarry Bank Mill - amazing scones in one of the most fascinating NT properties ever - you can even buy a tea towel made in the cotton mill!
- Flatford Bridge Cottage - we helped bake the scones at Flatford but we gave them 5 because they were mince pie scones and they were ruddy delicious!
- Winkworth Arboretum - a very understated place - not a fridge magnet to be had - but serving fantastic scones!
- Houghton Mill - the Scone Blogger was very hungover but she soldiered on and tried the scone made from home-milled flour, which was DELICIOUS!
- Brownsea Island - we didn't see any red squirrels, which shows that they don't have very good taste as there was a Sconeathon on the day we visited!
- Bodiam Castle - our very first 5 out of 5, setting the benchmark for all!
There's also a National Trust Book of Scones, which is available in NT shops or on the internet.
As ever, I send my ever-lasting affection and thanks to all of the fantastic Sconepals that have sent in photos and shown ongoing support and enthusiasm for this project.
Keep sharing your National Trust scone sightings, either on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram. I love them!
