One of the most magnificent staircases in Britain, in a palatial Baroque home up for sale at £3.25 million

It's not every day that we highlight a property where Daniel Defoe went to stay. Nor is it common that we feature homes for sale with epic staircases the walls of which are covered in the sort of murals you'd expect to find in the Vatican.

Today is one of those days on both counts, as a home within the extraordinary Baroque masterpiece that is Burley on the Hill has come up for sale. 'The Great Stair & Library' is coming up for auction via Savills on November 24 with a guide price of £3.25 million.

Technically this is an apartment, though the word seems scarcely appropriate for a four-storey, 12,000sq ft property: there's a library and a marble room, a string of reception rooms, a state bedroom suite and six further seven bedrooms — plus a ballroom, tapestry hall and garden saloon to which the apartment has direct access, though not exclusive use. The same goes for the 67 acres of grounds, which are shared by the residents.

All have towering ceilings, vast dimensions, magnificent original features, and glorious views over grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. 'I do not know of a house in Britain which excels all the rest in so many particulars, or that goes so near to excelling them all in everything,' wrote Defoe following his visit. Quite a claim for a man who also visited both Chatsworth and Blenheim Palace when they were still basically new.

The most spectacular space of the lot, though, is the Great Stair itself, via which you climb from the ground floor to the first floor surrounded by murals depicting the story of Perseus and Andromeda. The murals were created by the Flemish master Gerard Lanscroon between 1708 and 1712.

It's a remarkable creation, reminiscent of the Grand Staircase at Petworth House, which was built just before Burley.

Burley on the Hill, like many of the great country houses of Britain, fell into difficulties in the second half of the 20th century. It avoided both the wrecking ball, and the mirror-fate of being turned into a National Trust tourist attraction, to find a new life in the 1990s, when the architect Kit Martin converted the house, outbuildings and stables (the latter are utterly extraordinary in their own right) into 23 separate homes, a job which he accomplished so beautifully that Country Life awarded the house its 'Country House of the Year' award in 1996, with the judges calling it 'a spectacular transformation that revives and respects the spirit and the quality of the place'.

A house at Burley on the Hill is mentioned in the Domesday Book, but the current property was built in the late 17th century for Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham. The Ballroom, like the Great Stair, was also decorated by Lanscroon, but that decoration was lost in 1908 when much of the house was damaged by a fire.

The fire broke out following a party attended by Sir Winston Churchill, who'd been appointed President of the Board of Trade a few months earlier — his first job in the Cabinet. Churchill and the other guests are said to have fought hard to stop the blaze, and although much was lost, the Great Stair and the library were untouched.

Of all the homes at Burley, this is the pick. The main house was split into six residences by Martin, with The Great Stair & Library being both the largest, and also the only one with its original state rooms intact.

When the plans were drawn up it was conceived as two separate dwellings, but has been kept as one; it’s possible that this residence could still be divided into two, subject to the usual consents.

For sale at auction on November 24, 2026, via Savills — see more details.

See more of the best skip the rest — add us as a preferred source in Google and you'll see more from Country Life when you're online.