Situated on the Clywedog River, Erddig was the Yorke family's ancestral home for over two centuries since 1680. It provides a unique insight into the life of the British upper class in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the 'upstairs-downstairs' social hierarchy of their bygone world. When the National Trust took over in 1973, it restored the 18th-century garden and the house to its 1922 appearance.
Erddig is 12 miles northeast of Llangollen, signposted off the A483.
Highlights include an intimate glimpse into the relationship that existed between masters and their servants, with the Servants' Hall featuring oil paintings of staff and poems by members of the Yorke family that honour of some of their favourites.
The last Yorke to own Errdig left the country pile in a state of disrepair; the house, the earliest parts of which date from 1680, had no electricity, running water, or telephone line, and the garden was hopelessly overgrown. Today, the 486-hectare landscaped pleasure park and, in particular, the walled garden, are a delight to behold, with the walls covered with a mind-boggling 150 species of ivy, and trimmed yew hedges encircling a battalion of pleached trees.