Saltburn: the darkly comedic, and utterly divisive, cult thriller that put one civil parish in the East Midlands firmly on the map (and into the centre of a noughties revolution.) In a richly colour-graded show of aristocratic wealth and debauchery, the film pulled Jack and Jill bathrooms, clawfoot tubs, minotaurs, and even Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” into the modern-day zeitgeist. Think Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley meets Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, but with enough red velvet, collegial frivolity, and nostalgic satire to illicit interest across the generational spectrum, from TikTokers to the tweed-wearing type.
Filmed in Lowick, Northamptonshire, at Drayton House — a private country estate that was built around 1328, and has been owned by the Stopford-Sackville family since 1770 — the Baroque façade of Saltburn's stately backdrop might be locked behind a fortified gateway, but we have the key to places just as bodacious.
Botania
A photographer's manor in Dartmoor with a labyrinthian blueprint, rooms big enough to dance in, and rewilded gardens with a life of their own. There’s even a lily pad swimming pond for living out laissez-faire philosophies.
Castle Trinity
The Yorkshire estate of a disc jockey and a nightclub designer who brought the glitz of crystal and crushed velvet to a nineteenth-century citadel. It’s filled from tower to turret with energy, armour, and portraits of visiting A-listers.
Florin
A Victorian country manor in Ceredigion with secret doors disguised by bookcases, banquet rooms, and a castellated tower. Outside, enchanting grounds harbour a treehouse, hot tub, and party-ready garden nook.
Orpheus
The Southwold estate — complete with a pool and lavish spa — where fantasy pokes a portal into the real world. Think empire chandeliers won at Sotheby’s and the same palatial bathtubs you would find in Buckingham Palace.
Huntlington House
A 17th-century estate that offsets its oodles of rural charm with drumkits, glittering skulls, a heated indoor pool, and enchanting topiary gardens, where everything is infused with rascality. This one’s on the market for a new owner.
Wool Merchant's House
The Somerset country pile that keeps the world at bay with flowering walls, and a secret garden that’s the envy of the hamlet come summer; here, socialites sun-dry on formal lawns and dangle toes in the water with negronis in hand.
Thornemead Castle
A 240-year-old Gothic citadel in Somerset that’s the most complete Pugin-inspired property in Britain, complete with decorative vaulted ceilings, pointed archways, and panelled rooms packed with bygone paraphernalia.
Castle Trematonia
The dreamlike estate set against a medieval backdrop of pre-Raphaelite gardens and a motte-and-bailey castle; with an interior pick 'n' mix of patterns, this outlandish dollhouse is perhaps the most decorative estate in all the land.
Feeling inspired? Read about the storybook homes, find a pool of one's own, or browse the full collection of luxury homes in the UK and Ireland.
