ROLL OUT THE red carpet
As the world locked down and we were forced to spend weeks or months at a time confined to our own homes, many of us no doubt fantasised about how much better it would be to quarantine in a Bridgerton-scale house, with a scandalously big estate all to ourselves.
The truth is, while some of Scotland’s palatial properties remain family homes, many more have been turned into heritage houses and great museums to meet the astronomical running costs, including heating, and carrying out fragile restoration projects.
Luckily, organisations such as Historic Environment Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland are there to offer a buffer to country piles that might otherwise fall to ruin or be closed off to the public.
Stately homes and castles are huge attractions to Scotland’s visitors, offering windows into the past. Without visitors, they become little more than mausoleums to past lives, gathering dust as the shutters go down and the curtains are closed. Throughout the pandemic, though locals have been able to make use of
