Plans to establish Dyffryn House as a major tourism attraction for the Vale of Glamorgan have been boosted with the award of a £600,000 Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant.

The main rooms of the Grade II*-listed property - designed in the late Victorian period in French Renaissance and English Baroque styles - are to undergo restoration work.

Visitors will be given the opportunity to view the rooms for the first time since the house closed in 1996, while an interpretation and learning officer is also to be employed.

It will follow the restoration of the Grade I-registered Dyffryn Gardens, which received a total of £6.15m from the HLF towards the restoration of features and landscapes.

Dan Clayton Jones, the chair of HLF in Wales, said: "This award is the final piece in the jigsaw of the restoration project at Dyffryn.

"The house is one of the most important to have survived from the period and reflects the enormous wealth amassed by John Cory, more than 100 years ago."

Image: Volunteer Kay Parry inside one of the rooms to be renovated