Outdoors: Uncover a National Trust gem

What actually constitutes a family I sometimes wonder. On the face of it we are a fairly nuclear number with a husband, wife and three children. "We should do more together," I often say. The two teenagers quite like doing family things, but tend to prefer doing them with other families as I am obviously the most embarrassing mother that ever walked the land.

My husband agrees with me, but so often he can't make an outing due to some urgent gardening which serendipitously seems to coincide with an important football match.

Therefore, I am often left to filch some children from elsewhere to make up the numbers a bit. It was a little group of three that visited the NTS's Georgian House on Charlotte Square – myself, nine-year-old Ellen and her friend Sophie.

Shamefully I have to admit that I had never visited this building despite living a stone's throw away (if you are Freddie Flintoff, that is).

On the north side of the square beside Bute House and gifted to the National Trust for Scotland in 1966, it was opened to the public nine years later, after painstaking reconstruction to as near original condition as possible.

And extremely impressive it is too. While I wandered around marvelling at the cornices and beautiful Georgian furniture, the children were both given a clip board with questions about each room, which kept them very busy.

Each room is staffed with NTS volunteers full of stories about the contents and they seem genuinely proud of the building.

In addition each room has an information sheet with plenty of facts, which are available in several different languages.

Looking out of the window in the first floor parlour there is a great view of the New Town and Stockbridge.

To the left of the window is a painting of that vista when the house was first built in 1796, and it's virtually green fields all the way to Fife.

Down in the basement, the kitchen, below, is fascinating; the heat-powered spit would go down a treat in any "green" household today. Also in the basement is a short film depicting a day in the life of the Lamont family, who lived in the house 200 years ago, which had the children rapt.

So it was a thumbs-up from the children and definitely on the "to do" list I give any new visitors to Edinburgh. I can even lend them some children.

The Georgian House, 7 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4DR. Tel: [phone], visit www.nts.org.uk

Admission to The Georgian House is free for members of any National Trust organisation, otherwise there is a charge of 5.50 for adults, 4.50 for children and concessions, 15 for families (two adults and up to four children) and 10 for single-adult families (one adult and up to four children).

• This article was first published in The Scotsman on Saturday, May 1, 2010