Live the Downtown Abbey dream

Downton Abbey fans only have a few weeks to wait before their favourite period drama returns.

It’ll be the fifth series following the upstairs/downstairs dramas of life a century ago.

The ITV show may be fiction but growing numbers of us are getting a taste of high society living.

The grandeur of Highclere Castle, used for filming, may be beyond most but many stately homes are enjoying a boom by opening up for hire.

And while the headline figures may seem high, if you have a good number in your party the per head costs tumble down.

It may be you’re looking for somewhere really special for all your family and friends to spend Christmas or New Year.

Or perhaps you’re having a milestone 40th, 50th or 60th birthday and want to celebrate in grand style.

LTR specialise in luxury exclusive use accommodation in stately homes, country houses and castles.

The properties come fully staffed. Prices start at around £3,500 per night but the homes are so big and grand, that can work out at just a couple of hundred pounds per person.

The Country Castle Company is another in the market with country manor estates that can sleep up to 120 guests among their portfolio.

Tarbert House, just a couple of hours from Glasgow, is an imposing manor house.

Sleeping up to 26, it costs from just over £4,000 a week. And Grade A listed Big Wood Manor Midlothian, 30-minutes from Edinburgh, sleeps up to 20 and costs from £2,000 for a weekend.

The National Trust for Scotland has some stunning properties under their care and you can get a taste of how the other half lived.

The Laird’s Apartment in the West Wing of Brodie Castle is set over three floors and can sleep up to 14 guests.

Just one fewer can be accommodated at the Preston Tower Apartment at Fyvie Castle. It’s over four floors and there’s a grand dining room where you can pretend to be one of Downton’s Crawley family.