Snooping around: Castles

Property of the week: Wye Valley, Gloucestershire. This five-bedder is an audacious exercise in geometry. Octagonal units rise out of the circular kitchen, the living room wraps round a free-standing fireplace, and a triangular study overhangs on a mezzanine level. Capping it all is a ceiling spoked with beams that resembles the underside of an umbrella. Wall-to-floor windows look out over 28 acres of wooded grounds. Cost: £750,000.
The Modern House, 0845 634 4068 Photograph: The Modern House/The Modern House

Wreck of the week: Norwich, Norfolk. This detached, 17th-century timber-framed bakehouse with a pantiled roof is currently used as a store. Planning permission allows for two bedrooms, a living room, a garden room and a kitchen/breakfast room. Budget for more than £150,000 to do it all, on top of the £195,000 asking price. An Elizabethan manor house shields it from the road, so it sits secluded in its 0.15 acres. A shop and two pubs are down the drive.
TW Gaze, 01379 641341 Photograph: TW Gaze/TW Gaze

Take three: Castles. Your initial surprise - £195,000 for a castle?! - might quickly recede; that only buys the walls of Baltersan Castle, Ayrshire. Built in 1584, it was decrepit by the mid-1700s. Planning permission means it can be resurrected with a banqueting hall, library and five bedrooms. Historic Scotland will fund a quarter of the £1.5m-£2m restoration costs. John Keats and Robert Burns were both inspired by the ruins. Will you be?
Strutt & Parker, 0141 225 3880 Photograph: Strutt & Parker/Strutt & Parker

Take three: Castles. Snape Castle in North Yorkshire was once the home of Henry VIII’s last wife, Catherine Parr. It is an early 15th-century fortified manor with panelled Georgian-style rooms, a stone staircase, five beds, three receptions, a kitchen, a games room and two bathrooms. Outside is a private walled garden, a kitchen garden, a water garden and an arboretum. It’s now technically a semi, and it’s yours to rent for £2,500 a month.
George F White, 01677 425301 Photograph: George F White/George F White

Take three: Castles. A ruin in the seven acres of grounds is all that remains of the original 12th-century Crayke Castle; this grade I-listed replacement was built in 1450. The medieval barrel-vaulted kitchen by Neville, Bishop of Durham, is the chief thrill, but it also boasts eight beds, three receptions, a kitchen/family room, and a two-bed apartment. Alas, it will have to remain a fantasy for ordinary mortals; the price tag is a knee-weakening £3.5m.
Knight Frank, 020 7629 8171 Photograph: Knight Frank/Knight Frank