Vanbrugh's last great baroque house, a bold pile of towers and columns near the Northumberland coast
Open to visitorsa National Trust place — check opening times and admission before you go
This was the final house Sir John Vanbrugh designed, the man behind Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, and he threw everything at it. Built from 1718 for Admiral George Delaval, it is all theatrical symmetry, massed towers and a soaring central hall, set down in open country a short way inland from the sea. The Admiral never saw it finished, dying after a fall from his horse in 1723, and the family completed it and moved in a few years later.
The central block was gutted by fire in 1822, said to have started with jackdaws nesting in a chimney, and that scorched, half-ruined grandeur is part of what makes the place so striking now. The National Trust bought it in 2009 after a public appeal. House and gardens are the paid, set-hours part of a visit, and the grounds are gentle and easy to potter around, with lawns, a ha-ha and a walled garden to fill an hour before or after the house.
Being so close to the coast, it pairs well with a blowy walk. Seaton Sluice and its little harbour are just up the road, the King Charles III England Coast Path runs along the shore nearby, and you can carry on to the island causeway of St Mary’s Lighthouse, which you can walk out to at low tide. Inland, Holywell Pond is a quiet spot for birds if you want to round the day off slowly.
