Building on history

Glamis Castle, Angus, part 2 The seat of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

Glamis Castle, Angus, part 1 The seat of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

Discover how the UK’s country houses defied the odds to survive as historic monuments and cultural centres

Somehow, it isn’t hard to imagine the scene of battle here, even on a sultry July morning when only the distant growl of a motorbike interrupts the crooning of collared doves. Perhaps it is the quiet.

When COUNTRY LIFE’s Henry Avray Tipping spotted a 17th-century four poster languishing in a Herefordshire attic in 1911, he set off a chain of events that saw the bed leave its ancestral home and land at The Met in New York

Home to a marquess and an RAF air crew – and believed to be the birthplace of a Queen – this red-brick Jacobean mansion contains stories spanning centuries