Hillsborough Castle

A Georgian country house in a village south of Belfast, the official royal residence in Northern Ireland and residence of the secretary of state. Built in the late eighteenth century for the Hill family, it has hosted political talks and state occasions across the twentieth century. The state rooms display fine furnishings and portraits, opened to guided tours. Extensive gardens surround the house, with a walled garden, glen walks and a lake set in one hundred acres of designed landscape restored to their historic layout.