NATIONAL Trust property Cotehele was awarded a silver award at the prestigious Cornwall Tourism Awards that took place last night at the Headland Hotel, in Newquay last Thursday.

In the category of 'Large Visitor Attraction of the Year', Cotehele was awarded a silver in recognition of the popular visitor attraction being of an excellent standard throughout. It has become a year-round visitor attraction and last year saw more than 130,000 visitors. This is the second year in a row that Cotehele has been recognised by the judging panel.

Charmian Saunders, Cotehele visitor services and volunteer manager said: 'We are absolutely thrilled to be recognised with this silver award. I was honoured to be at the Headland Hotel to receive this award on behalf of Cotehele in recognition of the amount of hard work the staff and volunteers put in to make it such a wonderful visitor attraction.'

The category had some stiff competition. The National Maritime Museum in Falmouth took the gold award and Tate St Ives, the bronze.

Joan Symons, Cornwall Council portfolio holder for tourism, culture and leisure, said: 'To be recognised as being among the best tourism businesses in the UK's favourite visitor destination is a significant achievement, especially in such difficult times.

'Each and every one of the gold, silver and bronze winners should be extremely proud of themselves and I hope that the Award titles drive the businesses forward to an even more successful 2013.'