I have always loved Seaton Delaval ever since I first visited in the summer of 1975 in search of the mausoleum: its grandeur; the way it dominates the landscape looking out to the North Sea; its dark stone and austerity; reminiscent of elements of Blenheim, but shrunk. 

The Delavals were big local landowners.  Vice Admiral George Delaval, who commissioned Vanbrugh to design Seaton Delaval, joined the navy and was 3rd. Lieutenant on HMS Lenox in 1693.  He travelled to Spain with Lord Peterborough in 1705, was an Envoy to Lisbon in 1707, negotiated an agreement with the Sultan of Morocco in 1708, and was Envoy Extraordinary to the King of Portugal for three years 1710. So, he was widely travelled and came back from his travels with money.

In 1718, he bought Seaton Delaval off his impoverished cousin and embarked on the construction of a grand family seat, telling his brother that he wanted to devote his old age to ‘repairing the old house, making a garden and planting forest trees’.

It was late Vanbrugh, more or less at the same time as Vanbrugh Castle, very high, without many rooms on each floor, but small corner rooms which make the outline feel fortified. It was burnt out in 1822 and only survives as a ruin, since 2011 under the care of the National Trust:-

Inside is what survives of a cantilevered stone staircase:-

The burnt Muses in the Entrance Hall:-

The remains of a chimney piece in the Entrance Hall:-

And the splendours of the service wing:-