Many country houses can boast stunning architecture and dramatic settings, but few can rival the spectacle of rose-coloured terraces, walls and towers, rising from a green woodland above the vale of Belvoir, which greets the visitor to the seat of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland. Do not be fooled by its pristine Regency appearance, there has been a castle on this site since Norman times. It passed by inheritance, in the sixteenth century, into the hands of the Manners family who remain in residence to this day. Prior to the High Victorian period, Gothic Revival style was used in a more light-hearted manner, and Belvoir’s well-lit rooms, sweeping staircases and high ceilings are full of Georgian charm. This is one of the grandest houses in the land, brimming with the best of fine and decorative art, yet with the continued presence of its owners, the atmosphere is one of warmth and comfort, escaping that cold, museum-like quality some houses of this calibre can suffer. The buildi...
North Wales can boast some of the most formidable medieval fortresses in Europe: Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech, and Beaumaris. As such, in the early nineteenth century, when gothic and castle style houses were in fashion, some local landowners chose to echo the massive form and defensive details of those edifices when building their country houses. Results of this trend include Bodelwyddan Castle, Gwyrch Castle and – the most intact – mighty Penrhyn. While on holiday in the area with my parents, locals were often surprised when we expressed our preference for Penrhyn over another nearby National Trust property: Plas Newydd. Any pair of major country houses so close together always attracts comparison. On the north side of the Menai Strait, elegant Plas Newydd was a home to the Paget family, Marquises of Anglesey, becoming their chief country residence after the demolition of their Staffordshire seat, Beaudesert Hall. It has connections to the Napoleonic Wars and twentieth-century ...