No ocean view, but who cares?

The Italian language is so lyrically euphonious that it can be forgiven brief lapses, such as the town of Todi. Located in Umbria, the only landlocked province on the peninsula but none the worse for that, Todi is close to Assisi, and Spoleto, home of Menotti's Festival of Two Worlds. (The other world is Charleston, South Carolina.) In ancient Latin manuscripts Todi is often spelt "Tuder;" Elizabethan aficionados are invited to make no connection.
                                                         

All, however, are invited to connect with this evocative and ancient stronghold in the Umbrian countryside just outside Todi. Seven kilometers from the town is this castle, dating to around 1000 CE.
 It has thick stone walls, huge fireplaces, and secret passages. There are 14 rooms, with 8 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, wooden beams and terracotta floors.

Someone who knew what they were doing built the library on two levels; how you get up to the gallery is unclear from the photos; perhaps one of those secret passages.

The period gardens have fountains, a swimming pool, and an amphitheater. And views. Did we mention the views? There are two hectares in all, with an olive grove.

EUR 3.950.000
http://www.romolini.co.uk/en/223_2_todi_castle_for_sale_castello/property_details.php?id=223

Impossible to resist...

Back to the South of France; if you've been there, you know how hard it is to stay away. The Aveyron department used to be, more or less, the province of Rouergue, and in a nation that seems to have been entirely fashioned for devotees of the Middle Ages, this area is rich to the point of folly. It's the home of the Route des Seigneurs du Rouergue, an ambling road that leads to 21 castles and medieval sites, perfect for endless summer days of picnicking and nosing around in ancient ruins.

Not a ruin, herewith an enchanting castle from the 12th and 16th centuries, measuring 550m², of which 440m² are livable, and doesn't that make you wonder about the secrets hidden in the other 110m²? There are 14 rooms, 7 of which are bedrooms, with en suite facilities added during the last 8 years of restoration which, we are assured, has left everything that speaks of authenticity, comfort, and charm. Sounds good to me, and only reinforces the spectacular view.

There are two spiral staircases that join all the levels, one of which climbs to the top floor of the keep, a 28m² vaulted chamber with a fireplace, and guess where I would locate my library.
There is a 440m² outbuilding, a heated swimming pool, and a bûcher, which could be either a pyre or a woodshed - I choose to believe it the latter. The estate sits on 15 hectares of meadow and forest "rejoicing in a view that dominates the valley." And how.
1 790 000 €
http://www.groupe-mercure.fr/acheter/vente-chateau-aveyron-10503-9244vm.html

In Macbeth's kingdom

If you have always had Abbotsford envy, here's where you can retire to write your own Waverley novels, or perhaps commentaries on Shakespeare's tragedies. Blackcraig Castle is a romantic Scots Baronial mansion on the River Ardle between Pitlochry and Blairgowrie in Perthshire, that big county right in the center of Scotland.

The exterior is too theatrically perfect to be authentic, and the interior looks suspiciously Victorian, but the original castle was a 16th century tower house and was the seat of the Barony of Balmachreuchie. The tower was extended and renovated in about 1856 by Patrick Allan-Fraser, who also added a gatehouse. At least the woodwork hasn't all been painted white, as is too often the case nowadays. (It will look so much brighter! says the decorator from London. It will look so much colder! says I.)

Some of the property will require refurbishment; doesn't it always? You'll have three reception rooms, ten bedrooms, two bathrooms and a shower room - an imbalance you'll probably want to correct unless, as I would do, you turn most of the bedrooms into library extensions. There's an observatory room with parapet, which sounds like the perfect place to crank out your historical fiction; two courtyards, walled garden with turreted garden house, and a folly. (Your mother always wanted a folly.) Your grounds are fields and woodlands amounting to about 30.5 acres, with trout fishing on the Ardle or perhaps a tributary.

If the house is too young to be haunted you can always borrow local ghosts, or perhaps witches: Perthshire is the location of Birnam Wood and high Dunsinane, where Macbeth met his gory end; though locally it's pronounced DunSIN'n, which cocks up Shakespeare's scansion...

Guide Price £600,000
http://www.ckdgalbraith.co.uk/property/PER130006/Ballintuim

In the Department of the Dordogne...

...in the Périgord Noir, on the heights above a village with all services, one of the loveliest small fortified manors you're likely to find here or anywhere in France. About 230 m2 living space inside; courtyard, stable, barn, garaging for two cars, in grounds of just over one hectare.
Click on the link for a brief slideshow. This really is the right size, and aesthetic, for a retired couple or single person with a few too many books, wall hangings, and swords, and a fair command of colloquial French.


565,000 €
http://www.demeures-et-chateaux.com/detail.asp?IdRef=3843CG0213XZ

Host to Good Queen Bess...

...during her 1575 progress, according to local legend.

Built in 1545 for Cardinal Wolsey, Crawley Grange is an impressive Grade II Listed Tudor Mansion, set in approximately 65 acres of formal gardens, parkland and paddocks. It's another example of how the poor Cardinal couldn't keep hold of any damned house he built - remember Hampton Court? The four wings of this house are now separate properties, so it's a condo of sorts, but it's the nicest one, and who are we to be greedy?

I would guess that this magnificent room is actually the great hall with a ceiling inserted, but it's still high enough to dance LaVolta. And who knows what timberwork lurks upstairs, above the five bedrooms (unfortunately painted white, but what're ya gonna do...)?

You have formal gardens and grounds, 2.5 acres of paddocks and woodlands, and access to the communal tennis court (not real tennis, unfortunately) and swimming pool. To the rear of the property is garaging for four vehicles, along with the former brick bake house which could provide a useful store/workshop, or (dare I say it) a bake house. It's close to the attractive little village of North Crawley in Buckinghamshire, and therefore convenient to London, useful for those trips to Shakespeare's Globe, or to the Tower to visit poor Lord Robert.

£895,000

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30750475.html

Fortress for hoarding truffles

Castle in the Perigord, ground zero for the French truffle industry. Built in the 13th century with additions in the 15th and 16th, all prime periods for French castle architecture. The 125 surrounding hectares include wooded areas, no doubt home to tons of you-know-whats, and meadows for your horses.

Towers, mullioned windows, huge reception rooms with monumental fireplaces, floors in local stone and terra cotta make up about 1500 m² of living space. The dovecote (go figure) and the chapel are listed as Monuments Historiques. The moats appear to need a good scrubbing; the French, who are proud of their lovely rivers, seem to use their ponds and such mainly for leech and scum cultivation. A resident flock of ducks should help clean that up, and provide plenty of magret de canard to cook with, um, truffles.

This is one of those estate sites that use little cartoon castles, one to four, to indicate price. This lovely property is listed at only one castle, so how expensive can it be?

Ref : 135192
http://www.proprietesdefrance.com/annonces/chateau-dordogne-aquitaine-france/135192/

The hills are alive...

...with the sounds of the happy peasants harvesting your grapes and dancing those Styrian folk dances where they slap themselves silly. Seriously, when you could make a name for your family label of Austrian whites, and coincidentally help Austrian wines dig out from under the (still crippling) 1985 Antifreeze Scandal, don't the attractions of Napa seem a little vieux jeu?

 Dating from the 17th century, this castle has its own vineyard, forest and pasture land and is located in a beautiful setting, in an area of Austria likened to Tuscany, but not, I suspect, by Tuscans. In addition to the main castle, there are two houses which are part of the estate and are in need of renovation. The castle itself is lived in at present but would benefit from some sympathetic refurbishment and updating. There is no Baroque like Teutonic Vernacular Baronial Baroque.

 Styria is home to more than 150 cleantech companies, of which one dozen are world technology leaders in their field; this is one of the highest concentrations of leading clean technology companies in Europe. So you could moonlight in some very worthwhile businesses while you age the wines from your (at a guess) Blauer Wildbacher grapes.

Ref A1736
€ 2 900 000
http://www.liveaustria.com/Luxury+Property/Southern+Styria/property16.html#photo