Six superb homes, from chocolate box cottages to grand Tudor mansions, as seen in Country Life

Suffolk — £2.75 million

A six-bedroom home in eight acres of land, just on the outskirts of the charmingly-named village of Fifehead Neville.

A house has been on this site for 2,000 years, and the present home 'only' dates back to the 16th century.

For sale via Knight Frank at £2.75 million.

Dublin — €9.25 million

A grand Georgian house — designed by James Gandon in 1794 — is just the start at this 75-acre property to the north of Dublin, near the coast at Malahide and Portmarnock, and within easy reach of the airport.

The main house has five bedrooms while the modern guest house has a further two.

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It's a sportsman's dream, and not just for the world-class golf courses nearby: the house has tennis court, a sports pitch and a floodlit padel court.

For sale via Savills at €9.25 million.

Surrey — £1.95 million

The very picture of the chocolate box cottage, with just under five acres of grounds that were laid out by a three-time Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist.

The new owner will be in very smart company indeed: this 16th century home was previously owned by the Duke of Sutherland and Jean Paul Getty.

For sale via Strutt & Parker at £1.95 million.

Buckinghamshire — £3 million

Not so much a home as a compound, this sprawling, detached country house has a village location just to the east of Buckginham.

The house is a classic hotchpotch of different eras: the oldest parts are Tudor, much of it is 18th century, the drawing room is a Georgian addition, and in the 21st century the whole place has been rewired, re-roofed, refurbished and enlarged, with a barn converted into a modern annexe.

For sale via Michael Graham at £3 million

Surrey — £1.25 million

Not the whole country house — not at this price in this neck of the Surrey woods — but a generous wing of this magnificent Georgian home: Thomas Sheriff Place, on the Henley Park Estate.

The original house was split in to individual homes in the 1990s, each one retaining its own freehold — yet still with the benefit of 17 acres of communal gardens.

This wing has 3,500sq ft of space, over four floors, with five bedrooms and a vast drawing room that swallows a grand piano — not to mention a nearly life-size giraffe sculpture — with ease.

For sale via Hamptons at £1.25 million.