Admiral Horatio Nelson received the estate of nine million hectares together with the title of Duke of Bronte as a gift from the Bourbon King of the Two Sicilies after he helped the king to escape certain death during the revolution of Naples in 1796. Nelson himself never lived on the property but his descendants the Hood-Bridgeport’s took possession of the dukedom until the final heir sold it to the city of Bronte in 1981.
Originally the castle was a fortified monastery and remained in the Nelson family until the 1980s. There is a wonderful little English garden behind the castle, the rooms feature tiled pavements from Caltagirone and the original furniture, books and paintings of Nelson's niece. The entrance fee is low and there are guided tours.
Dryburgh Abbey on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders was founded in 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland. The arrival of the canons along with their first abbot, Roger, took place in 1152.
It was burned by English troops in 1322, after which it was restored only to be again burned by Richard II in 1385, but it flourished in the fifteenth century. It was finally destroyed in 1544, briefly surviving until the Scottish Reformation, when it was given to the Earl of Mar by James VI of Scotland. It is now a designated scheduled monument and the surrounding landscape is included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.
David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan bought the land in 1786. Sir Walter Scott and Douglas Haig are buried in its grounds.