There have been several houses at Trelissick a relatively small house was built in 1750s by Captain John Lawrence to replace an earlier one on the same site. At that time the estate was surrounded by farmland. The present house at Trelissick was extensively rebuilt  in 1825 by Thomas Daniell whose father had purchased the estate in 1800. In 1832 Daniell sold Trelissick to the 1st Earl of Falmouth. The Gilbert Family of Eastbourne in Sussex and St Erth in Cornwall acquired Trelissick in 1844 and did a lot of planting which can still be seen today. In 1920 the Gilberts sold to Leonard Daneham Cuncliff, his step daughter Mrs Ida Copeland inherited the estate in 1937. Ida and her husband were responsible for much of the planting in the gardens. Including a huge range of species from rhododendrons,  azaleas, hydrangeas, camellias, flowering cherries, magnolias, eucalyptus, maples to ginkgo and palm.

The House is not open to the public and is still owned by the Copeland family who gifted 375 acres of parkland and 25 acres of gardens to the National Trust in 1955.

Trelissick is home to the  National Plant Collections of Azara and Photinia