Sir Walter Scott's home and a landscape charting more than 300 years of gardening history are among four projects sharing more than £10.5 million for restoration work, it was announced yesterday.
The Heritage Lottery Fund also confirmed funding for a Tudor house in Devon which offers a unique snapshot of 17th century town-house living and a Grade II listed building in South Wales which was a finalist in BBC2's Restoration programme.
The largest share of funding, £4.8 million, will go to Abbotsford, the home of writer Sir Walter Scott, in the Scottish Borders, and will enable restoration of the house and contents including Rob Roy's sporran and Napoleon's pen case.
The restoration work will include a new visitors' centre, a learning area in the basement and a wing converted into self-catering accommodation to provide additional income to the property.
Newbridge Memorial Hall, Caerphilly, will receive £2.9 million, so the building, which was a BBC Restoration finalist, can be restored as a heritage centre where people can learn about the Valleys.
The listed building which is known as the "Memo" was created as a memorial to those who died in World War I and houses the largest ballroom in South Wales as well as an art deco auditorium.
The Walronds, in Cullompton, Devon, is to receive funding of £1.7 million for work to restore the Tudor house, making the ground floor and gardens available for community use and converting the upper floors into holiday accommodation to provide income for the site.
The building, a rare example of an intact early town house dating from the 1600s, will be used for an extensive education programme and the community kitchen will host a catering scheme for students with learning disabilities.
And Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedfordshire, will be given £1.14 million for restoration work to a landscape on a par with Stowe and Stourhead and worked on by famous designers including Capability Brown.
The funding will restore the upper gardens and path network, provide better visitor facilities, improve exhibitions and deliver on-the-job training for eight novice gardeners.
Carole Souter, chief executive officer of the HLF, said: "The range of places that the Heritage Lottery Fund supports is tremendously varied - from the grandeur of Abbotsford in the Borders to the historic gem of the Walronds in the southwest.
"What's exciting about these four projects is not just that they are all in wonderful places of historic importance, but that they will make a significant contribution to their local economies and to the quality of life of their local communities."
She added: "Heritage can play an important role in economic recovery and we are anticipating an increased share of Lottery income from next year. "We know how welcome this investment will be during the tough times ahead." The Heritage Lottery Fund also gave initial backing for a further four projects, which received a total of £126,900 to develop their plans.
The four schemes are the National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire, the 13th century Black Gate, Newcastle, St Mary at the Quay, Ipswich, Suffolk, and the National Trust's Croome Court, Severn Stoke, Worcestershire.