The author examines how the Scottish country house was transformed by romanticism (including the discovery of the mythical bard Ossian by Macpherson) and the picturesque, then revived mid-19th century as Baronial haunts, before a large scale reoccupation and restoration from the late 1970s. The houses occupied a European tradition as castle-wise country houses, with ornamental battlements, large pleasure gardens and lavish vestments. Properties featured include Crathes, the House of the Binns, the Palace of Huntly and the Earl's Palace in Kirkwall. The book also focuses on the lives of the occupants, including Sir James Hamilton of Finart, the Earls of Morton, Huntly and Arran, and the Duke of Chatelherault, and discusses important architects such as Robert Adam, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and David Bryce.