A Sandford Award Winner in 1995, 2001, 2006. Built in the 1820s, this handsome Irish gentry house is surrounded by its 130-hectare (320-acre) wooded riverside estate. The former home of the MacGeough Bond family, a tour of this neo-classical masterpiece reveals it is unchanged since 1900.
The Sandford Award is an independently judged, quality assured assessment of education programmes at heritage sites, museums, archives and collections across the British Isles.
More than 350 sites - including historic houses, museums, galleries, places of worship, gardens, landscapes and collections – have received an Award since the scheme began in 1978. They include Hampton Court Palace, Brunel’s ss Great Britain in Bristol, Fota Wildlife Park in Eire, Edinburgh Castle, and Big Pit - the National Mining Museum of Wales.
Alnwick Castle
A Sandford Award Winner in 2000 Alnwick Castle is the second largest inhabited castle in England, and has been the home of the Percys, Earls and Dukes of Northumberland since 1309, making this year the 700 year anniversary.
Orford Castle
The unique polygonal towerkeep of Orford Castle stands beside the pretty town and former port which Henry II also developed here in the 1160s. His aim was to counterbalance the power of turbulent East Anglian barons like Hugh Bigod of Framlingham, and to guard the coast against foreign mercenaries called to their aid. Recent archaeological […]