Why we love Hill of Tarvit Mansion & Garden

Transcript

Six voices: Claudia, Dan, Frank, Robyn, Dave and Mark

Claudia
I'm Claudia. I'm the Visitor Services Supervisor for the National Trust for Scotland's Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse.
What I love most about Hill of Tarvit is the quirkiness -- the fact that all the rooms are completely different, that they were designed for the collection in it.
I always felt as though the house gave me a warm hug as soon as I entered it.
It just made me feel so welcome, so at home and as though I never wanted to leave.
And I kind of haven't! Because I started volunteering the following week and then was lucky enough to get the Visitor Services Supervisor job when it came up.
Visitors can experience all kinds of different things at Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse.
We have the great collection; they can see where the servants worked.
They can also come and play clock golf, putting, croquet, lawn bowls, and then of course we have Kingarrock Hickory Golf, our very own golf course.

Dan
I'm Dan. I work as a Visitor Services Assistant for the National Trust for Scotland here at Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse.
It's in fact one of the more modern houses in the Trust's portfolio in that it was only built between 1904 and 1908.
It was built for a gentleman called Mr Frederick Sharp.
He built Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse on the site of an earlier house and designed it very much around his collection of artwork and antiques.
So, he commissioned the most celebrated architect of the day, who was Sir Robert Lorimer.
And Robert Lorimer designed and built this house specifically around the individual pieces within Frederick Sharp's collection.
That collection remains in situ through to this day, so a visitor to the house here really is seeing the house as Frederick Sharp envisaged it, as Lorimer designed it, and as the family actually lived in it.
I think I love the way in which you get a real feeling that, despite the fact that this has been in the hands of the National Trust for Scotland since 1948, it really does feel as if the family walked out of the door five minutes before the visitor walks in.
I think that's quite unusual to get that feeling of timelessness, of the fact it hasn't really changed very much.

Frank
My name is Frank. I'm a room guide and a volunteer at Hill of Tarvit, and I've been doing this for 11 years now.
I love Hill of Tarvit because of its art collection and its homeliness, but the very first painting that I liked is actually in this room, the dining room.
It's the portrait of a lady in a ruff by Paulus Moreelse.

Robyn
I'm Robyn and I'm Collections Care for the National Trust for Scotland at Hill of Tarvit.
I'm currently working on cataloguing and cleaning the books in the library.
I found a few handwritten notes in the books, some song lyrics from 1953 when Marie Curie were here, and just generally giving them a bit of love and care.
I love Hill of Tarvit because it feels very homely.
It's quite grand and everything's very beautiful, but you could imagine yourself living here.

Dave
I'm Dave Allan. I look after the golf course here at Kingarrock.
I've worked for the National Trust for Scotland for the last six years.
The golf course here was set up by the Sharp family.
It's a hickory-only golf course, using hickory clubs but set up as a hickory course, and it's the only one of its kind in the whole of Europe.
I love the course because it's beautifully maintained; it's beautifully looked after.
And throughout the summer, it is a beautiful flower meadow as well as a golf course, so if you're unfortunate enough for your ball to go in the rough, at least you'll have something to look at!
I love the course myself because you see it changing throughout the season.
It really is a great place to work, and the views from the course are tremendous.
It's a great challenge to play and it's a great day out.

Mark
My name's Mark. We're at Hill of Tarvit, a National Trust for Scotland property.
I'm the Head Gardener for East Fife.
There's a nice plant collection at Tarvit. We're doing a lot of planting for future generations.
I think if I was to highlight one of the specimens that's one of my favourites, that would be the filo pastry tree or the Polylepis australis.
It's got bark that just looks exactly like filo pastry.
What I love about Hill of Tarvit is it's got something for everybody.
You can come here, you can have a picnic, you can walk your dog around the grounds, you can play a round of golf, you can play lawn games.
It really does have something for everybody.