Port Eliot House

Port Eliot House is a grade I listed country house set within a landscaped park. The building contains a medieval core derived from the Priory of St Germans, overlaid with an early 18th-century structure that was largely rebuilt and refaced by John Soane between 1804 and 1806. A service wing was added in 1829 by H. Harrison, with further alterations made in the later 19th century.

The house is constructed of rubble with stone dressings beneath slate roofs that sit behind embattled parapets. The plan places the entrance front facing west, with two parallel service wings of 1829 projecting to the front left and enclosing a small service courtyard with a carriageway. The main house by Soane arranges rooms in two ranges: the saloon and drawing room face north on the left side, with Soane's circular drawing room positioned to the rear left, and a stair hall between the entry hall and saloon. Rooms to the south include the billiard room and dining room. The style is Gothic.

The entrance front presents two storeys on a plinth across six bays, with an embattled parapet above a coved cornice. Windows are paired eight-pane sashes with hood moulds and a first-floor string course; the two central first-floor windows feature Gothic glazing bars. A central porte-cochere of 1829 by Harrison has a four-centred arch with hood mould and inner panelled double doors with moulded architrave. The left four bays are in greenstone coursed square rubble, the right two bays in sandstone. The left service wing projects two storeys across five bays with buttresses and embattled parapet, its windows paired sashes with hood moulds.

The right side features a polygonal tower at each end with pointed-arched twelve-pane sashes. The right elevation is arranged 1:3:5:3:1 bays with the central five bays broken forward. All windows are sashes, with cambered brick heads at ground floor and four-centred arches at first floor. Central and left French windows are present. The rightmost three bays retain twelve-pane sashes at both ground and first floors. A low screen wall attached to the left supports a pair of square plinths and wrought iron gates with urns over piers. Five granite steps with splayed wrought iron railings lead to the entrance front.

The left side features a bow to the left of the circular drawing room. The central range, rendered, comprises 4:3:2 bays with the central bay broken forward and embattled parapet. The bow has a blind nine-pane sash at basement level, a twelve-pane sash at ground floor, and a nine-pane sash at first floor. The central three bays of this range display rusticated granite ashlar at basement level from the 18th century, with a central round-arched doorway featuring a console keystone and round-arched six-pane sashes to either side with splayed glazing bars and cornice above. All windows are sashes of varied sizes.

The right service wing projects across 1:3:2 bays with sashes at basement, ground and first floors. The rear elevation shows 3:1:2 bays; a central canted bay rises through two storeys with a fifteen-pane sash at ground floor featuring Gothic glazing bars and a nine-pane sash at first floor. Sashes in bays to the right and left have brick surrounds. To the right, the bow of the circular ballroom contains sashes at basement, ground and first floor levels.

The interior retains all features as documented in historical sources. The park was landscaped by Repton, with his Red Book dated 1793.