Belvoir Castle

'Belvoir' is French for 'beautiful view' — and the view from the castle's hilltop over the Vale of Belvoir, stretching across Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, is exactly that. The name has been Anglicised to 'Beaver' by centuries of English pronunciation, which tells you something about the relationship between the Norman aristocracy who named the place and the English who subsequently inhabited it. Belvoir Castle is the seat of the Dukes of Rutland, one of the oldest noble titles in England, and has been their home since the 16th century. It looks exactly as an English castle should look — from a distance.

Robert de Todeni, standard-bearer to William the Conqueror, built the first castle here in 1067 on a natural ridge above the Lincolnshire marshes, a site that controlled movement between the north and south of England through a natural gap in the landscape. The Todeni castle passed through several families before coming to the Roos family in the 14th century, and then to the Manners family, later Dukes of Rutland, in 1508 when Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, inherited it through marriage.

Belvoir is one of those English castles where the current structure is almost entirely separate from the medieval original. The first castle decayed after the Wars of the Roses. A second, Elizabethan mansion was built and later demolished. A third, 17th-century building was itself largely demolished by the 8th Earl, who commissioned James Wyatt to design an entirely new Gothic Revival castle from scratch beginning in 1801. This fourth structure — largely Wyatt's work, modified after a fire in 1816 by the remarkable Duchess of Rutland, who effectively became the castle's architect for the post-fire rebuilding — is what stands today. It is a Romantic invention as much as a historical survival: a Gothic dream of what an English castle should look like, built at the very peak of the Gothic Revival movement.

The fire of 1816 destroyed the south wing and gave Elizabeth, Duchess of Rutland, her architectural moment. She worked with sculptor Matthew Wyatt, James Wyatt's son, to design the rebuilt section, specifying a more ornate and archaeologically detailed Gothic than her predecessor had used. The Elizabeth Saloon, named for her, with its gilded ceiling, blue walls and collection of French Empire furniture, is the most distinctive room in the castle. She died in 1825, her work essentially complete.

The State Rooms on show contain a significant collection assembled over five centuries: Holbein portraits, Reynolds, Gainsborough, works by Poussin and Murillo, and a particularly fine collection of sculpture. The Regent's Gallery, 37 metres long, was designed specifically to display the collection to its best advantage. Military memorabilia, reflecting Belvoir's long association with the 17th Lancers regiment, includes items connected to the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Belvoir's dramatic silhouette on its hill has attracted film and television production over the years, including scenes for The Crown (Season 4), filmed here as a fictional stately home. The castle's combination of romantic exterior and well-preserved interior rooms makes it one of the more frequently used locations in English heritage drama.

The grounds extend over formal terraced gardens immediately below the castle walls and beyond into parkland and woodland. The Spring Gardens, a woodland garden, are particularly good from April to June. The castle's hilltop position means the gardens descend in terraces, each level offering different views across the Vale of Belvoir below.