Palace House — Attraction in New Forest

Beaulieu Palace House is one the truly great treasures in the UK with so much history and great things to see making it such a truly great iconic and awesome place to see. Home of the Montagu family for many generations there is a lot an awful lot to be admired by the Palace Building itself with stunning architecture covering different eras of history and blend in beautifully together to make it an awesome sight. Inside the house there are a number of outstanding rooms to see including The Dining Hall, Lower Drawing Room, Upper Drawing Room, The Portrait Gallery, Library, Heraldry Bedroom, Oak Bedroom, Throne Room. Meadow Room and Flower Press and all of these are truly magnificent displaying an array of spectacular furniture such as wooden cabinets and chairs and beds and also portraits. The best of the rooms has to be The Meadow Room as it has a lovely vibrant bright exotic modern look and feel to it breaking slightly from tradition and The Oak Bedroom offering a great return to a more traditional look and also the Dining Room where you can see some amazing portraits and wooden furniture and in The Dining Room you can see traces of houses monastic Origins and heritage which is lovely. There is a lovely informative exhibition about Pearl one of the members of the Montagu and the influence she had to the family throughout her life and there are some interesting garments of clothing she used to wear on display. There is the Royal Pageantry exhibition exploring the Royal connections the Montagu family have to the Royal rulers of our land. In the gardens there is the wonderful mill pond walk where you enjoy spectacular views of the Beaulieu River and the walk itself is a nice relaxing stroll. In the gardens you can see a spectacular array of colour from the flower borders and see some beautiful roses ams Rhodenderons on display, which blend in beautifully with their local environment. The gardens also showcases some spectacular Vine Houses which are truly marvellous to see on the eye.There is the Secret Army exhibition chartering the courageous efforts Secret Agents made during World War Two and how their operations fared and operated whilst operating out of Beaulieu. Other areas of note include Beaulieu Abbey where you visit an informative exhibition about its origins and dissolution under King Henry VIII and wander around it ruins where have a clear idea of what life was like during the time of the Abbey. There is a cafe on site selling a good variety of food and drink at reasonable prices and also gift shop in the Kitchen area of the house selling a great of souvenirs at reasonable prices. Overall this is a wonderful and marvellous place to visit and makes for a remarkably enjoyable day out. Definitely well worth a visit whilst in the New Forest...

A beautiful family home that was once the gatehouse of the medieval abbey. Spent a very interesting hour here. It was a self-guided tour but there were costumed staff around the house who shared their knowledge and helped to bring Beaulieu's long and fascinating history to life. The downstairs rooms with their vaulted ceilings, huge stone fireplaces and stained glass are very impressive and gave me a sense of what the medieval gatehouse must have been like. Lots of ancestral portraits and family memorabilia. Some interesting exhibitions in the upstairs rooms. The tour finishes in the Victorian kitchen where I learned a lot about life below stairs. Some lovely gifts and souvenirs in the shop. I recommend buying the souvenir book which is packed with information about the estate and its history and costs only £5. There was also a falconry display taking place on the lawn. Well...

Had never been to Beaulieu in the 54 years I've lived in Dorset. Fantastic day out with our 2 younger children. After watching a fantastic falconry display on the lawn in front of palace house, we entered the house and had a good look around. Whilst inside, we stumbled across two extremely talented singers and pianist. We enjoyed listening to them for 3 songs and then our 16 year old daughter was given the opportunity to join the pianist and sing a song called Caro Mio Ben in Italian. Despite the piano player never having played it before, he was brilliant in accompanying our daughter. At the end of the song there was lots of applause and one lady was even shedding a few tears! You can see the performance of YouTube - search Scabycad...