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(All Properties) Gardens to Visit in (All Countries)

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Austria

   
 

Schönbrunn Palace


Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna. The castle is currently Vienna's most popular tourist destination, attended by over 2.5 million visitors per year.

The palace and gardens illustrate the tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs.

The palace, gardens, zoo are open to the public. There is a restaurant, conference facilities and guided tours.

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Film LocationCorporate EventsConferencesOpen to the PublicGardens to VisitTours Available

England

   
 

Alnwick Castle


Alnwick Castle is a castle and stately home in Alnwick, Northumberland, England, UK and the residence of the Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest, and renovated and remodelled a number of times.

It is a Grade I listed building with spectacular gardens.

The castle has been used in many films and television programmes.

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Film LocationEstate Lodges or CottagesCorporate EventsPrivate FunctionsPrivate House PartiesBanquetsConferencesOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Arundel Castle


Arundel Castle is a restored medieval castle. It was founded by Roger de Montgomery on Christmas Day 1067. Roger became the first to hold the earldom of Arundel under William the Conqueror. From the 11th century onward, the castle has been in the family of the Duke of Norfolk, and is still the principal seat of the Howard family. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War and then restored in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is a Grade I listed building.

The keep and gatehouse have been open to the public since 1800 and the gardens since 1854. Today you can visit the keep, castle, chapel and gardens. There is a Restaurant and a Gift Shop, and a range of events in the grounds along with educational and private tours. The castle is also available as a film location and for Corporate Events, Conferences, Pivate Functions and Banquets.

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Film LocationCorporate EventsPrivate FunctionsBanquetsConferencesOpen to the PublicGardens to VisitTours Available

 

Belvoir Castle (UK)


Belvoir Castle is a stately home in the English county of Leicestershire, overlooking the Vale of Belvoir. Belvoir castle has been the home of the Manners family for five hundred years, and seat of the dukes of Rutland for over three centuries. A corner of the castle is still used as the family home of the Manners family and remains the seat of the Dukes of Rutland. The present Castle is the fourth building to have stood on the site since Norman times.. It is a Grade I listed building. The castle is open to the public and contains many works of art.

The castle is open to the public. Highlights include lavish staterooms, the most famous being the Elizabeth Saloon (named after the wife of the 5th Duke), the Regents Gallery and the Roman inspired State Dining Room.The castle sits in a vast estate of almost 15,000 acres (120 km²). The landscaped grounds, nearer the castle, are also open and the Root Houses, built by the fifth Duke's wife, can also be seen. The present Duchess is restoring Belvoir Gardens, which includes the Secret Valley Garden and the Rustic Summerhouse of 1800.

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Film LocationHotelActivity VacationsWeddings CelebratedCorporate EventsPrivate FunctionsConferencesOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Grimsthorpe Castle


Grimsthorpe Castle is a country house in Lincolnshire. It is not a castle in the strict sensebut a stately home dating from Tudor times. Much of the Tudor house can still be seen today..Largely because of later alterations it looks like a real castle with its massive and martial towers and outlying pavilions recalling the bastions of a great fortress in classical dress - through the large windows at ground level are a give away

It lies within a 3,000 acre (12 km²) park of rolling pastures, lakes, and woodland landscaped by Capability Brown.

It is open to the public. Facilities include cycle hire, adventure playground, events (antique fairs, lectures etc) ,park tours, group visits, shop and tea room.

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Estate Lodges or CottagesOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Castle Howard


Castle Howard is not a castle but a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, 15 miles (24 km) north of York. Most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh. It is a Grade I listed House with spectacular Landscaped gardens

Castle Howard has been the home of part of the Howard family for more than 300 years.It is one of the largest country houses in England, with a total of 145 rooms.

The castle is familiar to television and movie audiences as the fictional "Brideshead", both in Granada Television's 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited and a two-hour 2008 remake for cinema. Today, it is part of the Treasure Houses of England heritage group.

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Film LocationEstate Lodges or CottagesPrivate FunctionsConferencesOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

France

   
 

Albi - Episcopal City (Palace and Cathedral)


Albi is an ancient city in the south of France. It preserves several distinct sites of walled cités from the Cathar period in the centre of the modern city. Although Albi was not besieged during the Cathar Crusade, it did give its name to adherents of Catharism - Albigeois or Albigensians, as the Caholic Church wrongly imagined it to be the cetre of Catharism in the Languedoc.

Albi is located on the River Tarn, in the Tarn departement, Midi-Pyrénées region, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. It was the seat of the Bishop (later Archbishop) of Albi and is the seat of the Diocese of Albi. The episcopal cité around the cathedral (in the center of the modern city), was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 2010.

Along with Toulouse and Montauban, Albi is one of the main cities built in Languedoc-style red brick. The bishop's city, a walled area encompassing the bishop's palace and the cathedral) claims to be the largest surviving brick-built complex on earth.

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Open to the PublicGardens to VisitTours Available

 

Château de Châlus (-Chabrol)


Châlus is a castle in commune of the same name the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in western France.

While besieging Châlus in 1199, Richard I of England was mortally wounded by a crossbow bolt shot by one Pierre Basile. King Richard's bowels are still preserved in the chapel here.

In 1275-1280, Géraud de Maumont built a second castle in front of Châlus Chabrol, called Châlus Maulmont. This was largely dismantled in 1790, then used as prison. The tower of Châlus Maulmont collapsed in 1994.

There is a medieval garden here. Other attractions of the village include a museum dedicated to the chestnut.

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Film LocationOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Château de Chambord


The royal Château de Chambord is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world. Its architecture is distinct French Renaissance that blends traditional French medieval forms (such as its plan) with classical Italian structures, as seen in the facades..

The Château de Chambord was an expression of François' I desire for power and extravagance and was designed to confirm his status as one of the greatest revolutionary builder's of his age.

Chambord is the largest castle in the Loire Valley, yet was built as a mere hunting lodge for King François I, who maintained his royal residences at Château de Blois and at Château d'Amboise. It is open to the public.

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Film LocationOpen to the PublicGardens to VisitTours Available

 

Grand Trianon


The Grand Trianon was built in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles at the request of Louis XIV, as a retreat for the King and his maîtresse en titre of the time, the marquise de Montespan, and as a place where the King and invited guests could take meals away from the strict étiquette of the Court.

Begun in June 1687, the new construction (as we see it today) was finished in January 1688 and inaugurated by Louis XIV and his secret wife, the marquise de Maintenon, during the summer of 1688.

The Grand Trianon is set within its own park, which includes the Petit Trianon (the much smaller château built between 1762 and 1768 during the reign of Louis XV).

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Open to the PublicGardens to VisitTours Available

 

Palace of Versailles


The Palace of Versailles (or Château de Versailles) is one of the most spectacular achievements of 18th-century French art. The site began as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge before his son Louis XIV transformed and expanded it, moving the court and government of France to Versailles in 1682. The three French kings who lived there until the French Revolution each added improvements.

In the 1670s Louis XIV built the Grand Apartments of the King and Queen, including the Hall of Mirrors. The Chapel and Opera were built in the next century under Louis XV. The château lost its standing as the official seat of power in 1789 but acquired a new role in the 19th century as the Museum of the History of France. Versailles has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List for 30 years, famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

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Open to the PublicGardens to VisitTours Available

the Republic of Ireland

   
 

Blarney Castle


Blarney Castle is a medieval stronghold in Blarney, near Cork, Ireland, and the River Martin.

The castle originally dates from before AD 1200, when a wooden structure was built on the site. Around 1210 A.D. this was replaced by a stone fortification. This in turn was destroyed in 1446, and subsequently rebuilt by Cormac MacCarthy, King of Munster.

The castle is now a partial ruin with some accessible rooms and battlements. At the top of the castle, among the machicolations, lies the Stone of Eloquence, better known as the Blarney Stone. Tourists visiting Blarney Castle hang upside-down over a sheer drop to kiss the stone. There are many legends as to the origin of the stone, but some say that it was the Lia Fáil—a magical stone upon which Irish kings were crowned.

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Open to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Trim castle


Trim castle is an Anglo-Norman castle, possibly the first stone castle in Ireland. It is located about 28 miles northwest of Dublin in County Meath, along the banks of the River Boyne. Trim has been described as “the finest and largest castle in Ireland”

It was built primarily by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter, from the 11th century. de Lacy took possession of the present building in 1172. The Castle was used as a centre of Norman administration for the Liberty of Meath, one of the new administrative areas of Ireland created by Henry II of England and granted to Hugh de Lacy.

During the late Middle Ages, Trim Castle, still the centre of administration for Meat, marked the outer northern boundary of The Pale.

Today the castle is semi ruined, but still worth a visit. It is in use and open to public

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Film LocationOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

Italy

   
 

Castello della Mandria


La Mandria is a park, which contains a number of royal palaces including the Borgo Castello. The Royal Apartment occupy the façade the Borgo Castello facing towards the Reggia di Venaria Reale. The estate was created in the second half of the 18th century as a centre for the breeding of purebred horses that would be used by the Royal Family for hunting with their train in the area of Venaria.

It is the Italy's largest historical park enclosed by a boundary wall (and the second-largest in Europe); La Mandria boasts remarkable 20 historical buildings, including several ancient farms, the remains of a medieval shelter, two hunting lodges (La Bizzarria and Villa dei Laghi) and Cascina Rubbianetta, today the seat of the International Riding Centre.

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Open to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Reggia di Venaria Reale


The Palace of Venaria (Italian: Reggia di Venaria Reale) is a former royal residence located in Venaria Reale, near Turin, in Piedmont, northern Italy. It is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, included in the UNESCO Heritage List in 1997, and one of the largest royal residences in the world, comparable in size and structures to those of Versailles and Caserta.

The Palace was designed and built from 1675 by Amedeo di Castellamonte, commissioned by duke Charles Emmanuel II, who needed a base for his hunting expeditions in the heathy hill country north of Turin. The name itself derives from Latin, Venatio Regia meaning "Royal Hunt". Recent work has recreated the palace's park (destroyed during the French occupation) in modern style.

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Open to the PublicGardens to Visit

Scotland

   
 

Armadale Castle


Armadale Castle is a ruined country house in Armadale, Isle of Skye, former home of the MacDonalds. A mansion house was first built here around 1790. In 1815 a Scottish baronial style mock-castle, intended for show rather than defense, designed by James Gillespie Graham, was built next to the house. After 1855 the part of the house destroyed by fire was replaced by a central wing, designed by David Bryce. Since 1925 the castle, abandoned by the Macdonald family, has fallen into ruin. The gardens around the castle have been maintained, and are now home to the Clan Donald Centre, which operates the Museum of the Isles.Click here for more ....
Estate Lodges or CottagesGardens to Visit

 

Blair Castle


Blair Castle is the ancient seat of the Dukes and Earls of Atholl.

The castle enjoys one of Scotland’s finest settings in the heart of Highland Perthshire.

The Castle has a long history, throughout which it has accumulated many fascinating historical artefacts, including antique furniture, art, period dress and arms and armour.

The Castle, one of Scotland's major stately homes, is open for visitors on a daily basis (entrance charge). One of the first private homes to open to the public in Scotland, Blair Castle welcomes more visitors than any other.

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Estate Lodges or CottagesWeddings CelebratedCorporate EventsPrivate FunctionsBanquetsConferencesOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Crathes Castle


Crathes Castle is a 16th century castle near Banchory in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. This harled castle was built by the Burnetts of Leys and was held in that family for almost 400 years. The castle and grounds are presently owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland and are open to the public.

Crathes sits on land given as a gift to the Burnett of Leys family by King Robert the Bruce in 1323. Construction of the current tower house of Crathes Castle was begun in 1553 but delayed several times during its construction due to political problems during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots.

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Gardens to Visit

 

Drummond Castle


Drummond Castle in Muthill parish is a little south of Crieff, Perthshire. The oldest part is a tower-house built over several years by Sir John Drummond of Cargill, following the issue of a royal warrant by King James III in 1491.

It is set on part of a prominent spine of rock known as the Gask Ridge, a geographical feature which stretches several kilometres across Perthshire, but is particularly prominent and steep-sided at the site of the castle. The original tower was ruined after Cromwell's siege in 1653. The upper stories were rebuilt (and heightened) in pseudo-medieval style in 1842-53, but the structure is no longer used as a dwelling. The keep is adjoined by a later, but better preserved, gatehouse (built 1629-30).

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Open to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Edinburgh Castle


Edinburgh Castle is a castle fortress that dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, from its position on top of the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site dates back to the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear.

The present castle dates from the 12th to 21st centuries. The castle saw many sieges and occupations during the Wars of Scottish Independence (1296 - 1357) and was besieged during the Lang Siege (1571 - 1573); and again in 1640, 1650, 1689, and 1745.

The castle is still in use today for ceremonial and military purposes. The 52 Infantry Brigade is garrisoned here. It is now owned by the Ministry of Defence. It is open to the public. Parts are also rented for wedding receptions.

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Weddings CelebratedOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Floors Castle


Floors Castle - the largest inhabited castle in Scotland. A unique Scottish visitor attraction with stunning interiors and magnificent gardens.

The Roxburghe Estate - a large agricultural and sporting estate and the family home of the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe.

The Roxburghe Hotel & Championship Golf Course - the perfect Scottish country house retreat. Ideal for golfing and fishing breaks.Click here for more ....
Property for exclusive HirePrivate FunctionsConferencesGardens to Visit

 

Kellie Castle


Kellie Castle is a castle located just outside Arncroach, about 5 kilometres north of Pittenweem in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland.

Originally a simple tower house, the lower section of what now constitutes the northwest tower is the oldest part of the castle, dating from around 1360, and is said to be haunted. In 1573 a new tower was built by the 4th Lord Oliphant to the east of the original tower. Between 1573 and 1606 the two towers were linked by a new range, terminated by another tower in the south-west, creating the T-plan layout that remains today. The castle is a fine example of Scots Baronial domestic architecture, with an imposing mix of gables, corbelled towers, and chimneys.

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Weddings CelebratedOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

 

Megginch Castle


Megginch Castle in Perth and Kinross, in central Scotland, was built for the Hay family in the 15th Century, Originally a rectangular red sandstone tower house, begun before 1460, the castle was extended and remodelled by Peter Hay in 1575 to comprise three storeys and an attic.

The Hays family sold the property to the Drummond family in 1664 and it has been extended in subsequent centuries.

The gardens are notable, with four ancient yew trees each more than 1000 years old, topiary, an astrological garden, a sundial dating from 1572, a fountain parterre, a 17th-century rose garden and a walled garden with a long herbaceous border and ancient fruit trees. Several of the old pear and apple varieties are greatly valued.

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Film LocationGardens to Visit

 

Mellerstain House


Mellerstain House is a stately home around 13 kilometres north of Kelso in the Borders, Scotland. It is currently the home of the 13th Earl of Haddington.

Mellerstain was built between 1725 and 1778. The architect William Adam initially designed the east and west wings for George Baillie and Lady Grisel Baillie. Work ceased after the wings were completed,and it was another 45 years before George Hamilton commissioned Robert Adam to design and build the main mansion house. Hamilton was a son of the Earl of Haddington, and he inherited the Mellerstain estate when Lady Grisel Baillie died, changing his name to Baillie as a mark of respect.

The mansion house is possibly the only remaining complete building designed by Robert Adam, as most of his other works were additions to existing buildings.

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Weddings CelebratedOpen to the PublicGardens to Visit

Wales

   
 

Bodelwyddan Castle


Bodelwyddan Castle is a fifteenth century castle in Denbighshire, Wales, originally built as manor house around 1460. The castle that stands today was reconstructed between 1830 and 1852.

The castle is set in a large area of parkland, and formal gardens. It is a partner of the National Portrait Gallery and possesses a fine range of portraits. Both house and gardens are open to the public. The castle offers tours and a range of educational services, along with other facilities for children. Rooms are available for private hire, and the castle is licenced for civil marriages. Bodelwyddan also hosts a wide range of events, including paranormal investigations. The castle grounds feature trenches built for troops to practice in during the First World War. Bodelwyddan Castle is a Grade II* Listed Building.

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Film LocationProperty for exclusive HireWeddings CelebratedCorporate EventsPrivate FunctionsConferencesOpen to the PublicGardens to VisitTours Available

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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