About
A La Ronde is one of England's most extraordinary and eccentric historic houses, a remarkable sixteen-sided structure perched on a hillside above the Exe Estuary in Devon. Built in 1796 by cousins Jane and Mary Parminter following their Grand Tour of Europe, this unique property was inspired by the sixth-century Byzantine Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. The result is a building unlike any other in Britain — a quirky, inventive, and deeply personal creation that reflects the creativity, independence, and artistic ambition of two remarkable Georgian women.
The house's most celebrated feature is the extraordinary Shell Gallery on the upper floor, a dazzling and fragile room entirely encrusted with shells, feathers, sand, mica, and other natural materials arranged in intricate geometric and naturalistic patterns. Created by Jane and Mary over many years of painstaking work, this astonishing room represents one of the finest examples of shell decoration in Europe. Due to its extreme fragility, the Shell Gallery can only be viewed via a closed-circuit camera system, but the images reveal a space of breathtaking beauty and obsessive craftsmanship. Elsewhere in the house, the Parminters' artistic talents are displayed through feather friezes, cut-paper work, painted decoration, and ingenious arrangements of shells, minerals, and curiosities collected during their continental travels.
Beyond the decorative interiors, A La Ronde's sixteen-sided plan creates a fascinating architectural experience. The central octagonal hall rises through the full height of the house, with rooms arranged around it like segments of an orange. Diamond-shaped windows, quirky alcoves, and cleverly angled rooms exploit the unusual geometry, creating surprising views and intimate spaces. The gallery running around the upper level was designed for exercise in bad weather — a practical innovation that reveals the Parminters' rational approach to domestic design. The house also contains original furniture, personal belongings, and collections of curiosities that illuminate the lives of these independent, well-travelled, and artistically gifted women.
Now cared for by the National Trust, A La Ronde sits within attractive grounds offering panoramic views across the Exe Estuary to Dawlish Warren and the Devon coastline. The property includes a small garden, a chapel built by Jane Parminter, and interpretive displays that place the Parminters' achievement in the context of Georgian women's history, Grand Tour culture, and the decorative arts tradition. For visitors seeking something genuinely unique and surprising, A La Ronde delivers an unforgettable experience of personal creativity and architectural imagination.
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Annual Visitors (2019)
60,000
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Busiest: Saturday, Sunday
💡 Visit on a weekday morning for the most peaceful experience. Spring and early summer offer pleasant weather and the garden at its best. The small interior means peak summer weekends can feel crowded.
💡 Visitor Tips
- The Shell Gallery can only be viewed via CCTV cameras due to its extreme fragility — don't miss the viewing area as this is the house's most spectacular feature. The high-definition images reveal extraordinary detail.
- A La Ronde is a small house with narrow corridors due to its unusual sixteen-sided geometry. Visit on a weekday morning to avoid crowds and enjoy the intimate spaces at a comfortable pace.
- National Trust members enter free. Non-members should book timed entry tickets online in advance, especially during summer weekends and school holidays when the small property reaches capacity quickly.
- Allow 90 minutes minimum — the house rewards careful looking, with decorative details in every corner that can be missed in a rushed visit. The feather frieze, cut-paper work, and shell decorations all deserve close examination.
- The tea room serves excellent cream teas and light lunches using local Devon produce. The outdoor seating area offers lovely views across the Exe Estuary — perfect for a break after exploring the house.
- Bring binoculars if you're a birdwatcher — the Exe Estuary is one of Devon's premier birdwatching locations, and the property's elevated position offers excellent vantage points for scanning the mudflats and water.
- The house can feel warm in summer due to small rooms and limited ventilation. Winter visits offer a different atmosphere with fewer crowds but may have reduced opening hours — check the National Trust website.
- Combine with a visit to Exmouth seafront, a walk along the Exe Estuary Trail, or the short drive to Powderham Castle for a full day exploring the east Devon coast.
Highlights
The Shell Gallery
A La Ronde's crowning glory is the extraordinary Shell Gallery on the upper floor, an entire room encrusted with thousands of shells, feathers, sand, mica, and other natural materials arranged in dazzlingly intricate patterns. Created by Jane and Mary Parminter over many years of meticulous work, this fragile masterpiece is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of shell decoration anywhere in Europe.
The gallery features geometric designs, naturalistic motifs, and elaborate compositions using shells collected from beaches and markets during the cousins' extensive European travels.
Due to its extreme fragility, the Shell Gallery can only be viewed via closed-circuit television, but the high-definition images reveal astonishing detail — individual feathers positioned with tweezers, tiny shells arranged in spiralling patterns, and surfaces that shimmer with mica and mineral fragments.
The gallery represents years of patient, obsessive craftsmanship and stands as an extraordinary testament to Georgian decorative arts.
The Sixteen-Sided Architecture
The house itself is one of England's most unusual buildings, a sixteen-sided structure inspired by the sixth-century Church of San Vitale in Ravenna that Jane and Mary Parminter visited during their Grand Tour of Europe. The central octagonal hall rises through the full height of the building, with rooms arranged around it like the segments of an orange, each offering a different aspect and catching light at different times of day.
Diamond-shaped windows, angled alcoves, and cleverly shaped rooms exploit the unusual geometry to create surprising spatial experiences.
The gallery running around the upper level was designed as an indoor exercise walkway for use in bad weather — a practical Georgian innovation.
The architecture demonstrates remarkable ambition for a domestic building of its era, particularly one designed by two women at a time when architecture was almost exclusively a male profession.
The Feather Frieze
Running around the walls of one of the principal rooms, the feather frieze is a remarkable decorative artwork created entirely from the plumage of native and exotic birds. Jane and Mary Parminter carefully cut, trimmed, and arranged feathers of different species to create images of birds, flowers, and decorative borders with the vivid natural colours of the plumage providing an organic palette that no paint could replicate.
The frieze demonstrates the same patient, obsessive craftsmanship visible in the Shell Gallery, but using an even more unusual and perishable medium.
The survival of this fragile artwork for over two centuries is remarkable, though conservation challenges are ongoing. The feather frieze exemplifies the Parminters' extraordinary artistic range and their willingness to experiment with unconventional materials drawn from the natural world.
Grand Tour Collections and Curiosities
Throughout the house, display cabinets and alcoves contain the curiosities, souvenirs, and natural specimens that Jane and Mary Parminter collected during their decade-long Grand Tour of Europe in the 1780s and 1790s. The collection includes minerals, fossils, shells, botanical specimens, small antiquities, prints, and devotional objects gathered from Italy, Germany, Spain, and other continental destinations.
These collections illuminate the Parminters' wide-ranging intellectual curiosity and the culture of collecting that characterized educated Georgian travellers.
The arrangement of objects within the house's unusual spaces — tucked into alcoves, displayed on specially designed shelving, incorporated into decorative schemes — shows how collecting and domestic decoration were inseparable aspects of the Parminters' creative vision.
Collections
A La Ronde's collections are inseparable from the building itself, as the Parminter cousins created the house as a total work of art in which architecture, decoration, and collected objects form a unified whole. The Shell Gallery and feather frieze are the most celebrated decorative artworks, but the house also contains cut-paper work, sand paintings, painted furniture, and decorated surfaces throughout.
Grand Tour souvenirs include minerals, fossils, shells, prints, and curiosities collected across Europe.
Original furniture and domestic items illuminate Georgian domestic life. The National Trust has carefully preserved and interpreted these collections in their original settings, maintaining the intimate, personal character that makes A La Ronde unique.
A La Ronde: The Parminters' House
The entire house serves as the principal exhibition, with each room revealing different aspects of the Parminter cousins' creativity, travels, and domestic life. Rooms are presented with original furniture, decorative artworks, and collected objects in their intended settings. Interpretive panels provide context on the Parminters' lives, their Grand Tour, the house's construction, and the techniques used to create the extraordinary decorative schemes.
The presentation balances conservation of fragile materials with visitor access.
📍 Throughout the House
The Shell Gallery Experience
The fragile upper-floor Shell Gallery is presented via high-definition closed-circuit television that allows visitors to appreciate the extraordinary detail of the shell, feather, and mineral decoration without risking damage to the irreplaceable surfaces. Additional displays explain the techniques, materials, and years of painstaking work that went into creating this masterpiece of decorative art.
📍 CCTV Viewing Area
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.