The United Kingdom is famous for its Castles and Stately Homes. Unlike much of the rest of Europe many of these properties are still owned and occupied by descendants of the person responsible for building them, in many cases several hundred years ago. Of the rest some are now in the care of English Heritage or the National Trust and some are Public Schools, Museums or even Hotels and sadly some no longer exist at all. Not all the properties displayed here are open to the public, we have provided links to the websites of those that are from the detail pages.
We are excluding from this section "true" castles, details of which you can find in our Castles and Forts section, being interested in properties primarily being constructed for use as a major residence. You will find more a more complete list of this type of property, without the watercolour pictures, in our attractions section of Stately Homes and Historic Houses.
Stately Homes are perhaps more correctly and originally referred to as "Country Seats" (The
other seat
was usually in the House of Lords), or today "Country Estates" as at the time of their
construction it was common for the nobility and landed gentry to have houses in the city, commonly London, and also
these properties out in the country where they and their families could escape
into healthier surroundings during the height of summer.
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Blenheim Palace |
Castle Howard |
Harewood House |
Ripley Castle |
Warwick Castle |