Antony House was constructed, for Sir William Carew, between 1711-1721. The house stands on a peninsular formed by the confluence of two estuaries - the River Tamar to the east and the river Lynher to the north. The house like the nearby Cotehele was spared the ravages that so many of the country's fine houses underwent in the name of modernisation in the Victorian period.

Antony House features some exceptional furnishings. A splendid collection of portraits including examples of works by Reynolds and a painting of Charles I at his trial. The house and gardens were donated to the National Trust in 1961. There are 35 acres of landscaped garden adjacent to the house, managed by the National Trust, and 65 acres of natural woodland managed by the Carew Pole Garden Trust (see Antony Woodland Garden).

The house is a two-storey, silver-grey stone, block faced building with two brick wings joined by colonnades, and has remained largely unaltered, apart from the addition of the 19th century porch. The main rooms in the house are panelled in Dutch oak, with some still containing the original 18th century furniture. Antony House has some fine displays of paintings and treasures belonging to the generations of the Carew family - a fine historic record that dates back to long before the actual construction of the house.

There are also some fine displays of fine china, tapestries, embroideries and portraits. The collection of portraits at Antony includes examples of work by Reynolds and a painting of Charles I at his trial. A portrait of Richard Carew, a historian and author of the 'Survey of Cornwall' who inherited the estate in 1564 faces Charles across the entrance hall. Antony's superb 25 acre landscaped gardens include a formal courtyard, terraces, ornamental Japanese pond, fine summer borders, sculptures and knot garden. The gardens are the home for the national collection of Hemerocallis (610 cultivars).

A lot of the landscaping was carried out by Humphry Repton, who swept away the formal parterres to the north of the house in the late 18th century. The topiary and yew hedges are the work Mr Pole Carew who redesigned the garden in 1800. The house's magnificent lawns sweep down to the River Lynher. There are many species of indigenous and exotic trees and a collection of camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons, magnolias and other flowering shrubs.

The museum corridor contains a collection of stone carvings from the North West Frontier of India and the garden is home to a temple bell from Burma brought back to Antony House by General Sir Reginald Pole-Carew. There is also a natural woodland of 65 acres bordering the estuary of the River Lynher.