Ashby St Legers: A spectacular house where the Gunpowder Plot was hatched
A house associated with the Gunpowder Plot was splendidly enlarged by Lutyens and is now enjoying a new lease of life as a modern family home.
The most haunted houses that you can visit in England and Wales
County houses, castles and palaces almost always have stories of ghosts who have appeared over the years. We picked out 10 of the spookiest that you can visit.
Cobthorne: A home that stands out for its grace, even in the beautiful town of Oundle
This striking town house in Oundle serves as home to the head of the town's famous school – and is testimony to the zealous ambition and colourful career of its builder, an opportunist soldier and Parliamentarian in Cromwellian times.
Château de Lassay: The castle of Bluebeard’s widow
This magnificent French castle has a remarkably colourful history. Its present owners have made heroic strides in restoring its fabric and are determined to preserve it for the future.
Kedleston Hall: A National Trust gem restored to its extraordinary former glory
It's 30 years since the National Trust raised the money to buy Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire. The work done since then is nothing short of staggering
Torosay Castle: The Hebridean shooting lodge that stayed in one family for 150 years
Mary Miers tells the story of a Victorian shooting lodge owned by the same family for 147 years – with photographs by Simon Jauncey taken by Country Life shortly before the house and its contents were sold.
Upton House: A beautiful 1750 creation by Halfpenny, updated in a manner he’d have loved
Upton House, just outside Tetbury, is a beautiful Georgian house that has been brilliantly extended in a manner which is so sympathetic as to be scarcely noticeable.
Chitcombe House, Dorset: A modern Classical creation
An award-winning country house was completed in 2014 by Dorset-based architect Stuart Martin. We explored the themes of this clever and compact design in the Classical tradition.
Powderham: The Devonshire castle that’s been in the same family for 600 years
An ancestral West Country home that has passed through the hands of one family for the past 600 years has, since the 18th century, developed a dazzling succession of interiors.
Great Chalfield Manor: The magic of the Middle Ages
The serene beauty of this magnificent 15th-century manor house belies a complex and eventful history.
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'A masterpiece of timeless elegance' for sale on the charmed Surrey estate once owned by Henry VIII and the Guinness familyThe Manor House in Burwood Park is a grand, enormous and undeniably impressive. Annabel Dixon takes a look.
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Remembering the Country Life Quiz of the Day by doing the Country Life Quiz of the Day, December 2, 2025Today's quiz is about the quiz. Every question has been asked before. Can you get 10/10?
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This Grade I Essex home was renovated by a Guinness and a notorious American diarist and photographed by Country Life — now it's a firm favourite with the fashion setKelvedon Hall was saved from demolition by Lady Honor Guinness and Henry 'Chips' Channon. Now it is the star of a Church's Christmas campaign.
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Northwold Manor: 'A place of delight once more after half a century of chaos and neglect'A heroic restoration project has transformed Northwold Manor in Norfolk — home of Professor Warwick Rodwell and Ms Diane Gibbs — after more than 50 years of being left neglected. It has also illuminated its remarkable history, as John Goodall explains; photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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53 years ago, a Wren masterpiece was replaced with a glorified roundabout. We must not make the same mistake againThe plans to rid Christ Church Newgate Street of traffic should be cause for celebration — but a mistake as bad as the one made in the 1970s is about to happen, says Ptolemy Dean.
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Ten of the most exquisite French châteaux, photographed for Country Life in 1906 and still standing todayIn the early 20th century, Country Life commissioned Frederick H. Evans to photograph some of France's châteaux. Here are some of his efforts.
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War, ruin and renaissance: Dorfold Hall's 400-year journey through the agesJohn Goodall describes the antiquarian rediscovery of Dorfold Hall, Cheshire — home of Charles and Dr Candice Roundell — and the recent spectacular renewal of this important Jacobean house. Photographs by Paul Highnam for the Country Life Photo Library.
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All fired up: 12 of our favourite chimneys, from grand architectural statements to modest brick stacks, as seen in Country LifeNothing says winter like a roaring fire, and plenty of the houses that we've photographed for the magazine's architectural places have fireplaces and chimneys worth boasting about.
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Dorfold Hall: The 'most neat and beautiful house of brick' that owes its existence to a desperate effort to secure successionDorfold Hall in Cheshire is an outstanding Jacobean house, but was an unexpected product of dynastic disappointment. John Goodall examines the remarkable circumstances of its construction; photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Only a handful of Britain's great houses were photographed by Country Life in a ruinous state. This once splendid Gothic castle is one of themThis is the tragic tale of Tong Castle, a once great Georgian-Gothic castle that was eventually consumed by Nature.
