Britain's most unusual homes: medieval castles, dungeons and remote island cottages are among most eccentric properties for sale
From island retreats, to castles, to houses with their own railway station, Britain truly is a land of unusual homes.
For centuries, the rich and the not-so-rich have indulged their eccentricities in designing the places they live in to reflect their whims and fantasies.
In the gallery above, some of the country's more luxurious and unusual properties from around the country are collected, starting with a manor house with its own train station.
Plas y Dduallt, high in the hills of Snowdonia, has the Ffestiniog Railway running through its land and a former owner of this 16th-century Welsh manor house, on the market for £795,000, made the most of it by building a platform and signal box in 1965.
True to the tradition of wealthy English eccentrics, he even bought a locomotive and ran his own train service to pick up his shopping in the nearby town.
Househunters seeking to indulge the fantasy of being lord or lady of all they survey might be taken by Wilton Castle, in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. The title is for sale separately, but even if you've only got the £1.5 million asking price, the estate comes with a five-bedroom manor house, a ruined tower and even a dungeon.
From the vast to the cosy, a two-bedroom maisonette in Hackney offers a taste of country mansion in the heart of the capital for £1.65 million. A former vicarage, the gothic masterpiece has been restored to its former glory with lavish wood panelling throughout and gold-leaf cornicing.
If only a castle will cut it as your dream home, but you want easy access to the bright lights, 16th-century Craigcrook Castle is in an exclusive suburb of Edinburgh, but with over four acres of grounds offers splendid seclusion for £6 million.
Truly imposing architecture can also be found in former municipal buildings and this old crown court has that in spades. Just across the road from Caernarfon Castle in north Wales, The Old Court House has a living room formed from the entire courtroom — including viewing gallery — for a bargain £525,000.
Last, but by no means least, is Tanera Mor, a self-sufficient island off the coast of the west Scottish highlands near Ullapool, which is completely off the grid thanks to its own generators and wind turbines, the rights to issue your own stamps and even a post office to post those personalised letters.