The Warren House, Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire

This cottage, built in the 18th century for Kimbolton Castle's keeper of the rabbits (hence its name), was intended as a cheeky eye-catcher for when the Duchess of Manchester gazed out of her bedroom window. Once a common enough building, it may now be the only unaltered timber-framed house of its kind in existence. It has just been renovated by the Landmark Trust, which rents out dozens of properties across the UK, and it welcomed its first overnight guests last month (there are open days for visitors tomorrow and Monday). Inside, the ground floor is the bedroom, leaving the first floor chamber as a living space with fine views of the castle in the valley below. Some of the 18th century's most celebrated architects – Vanbrugh, Hawksmoor, Archer and Adam – all contributed to the design of Kimbolton Castle, and it's quite possible that one of them tarried a while to confect the elegant stone-and-brick facade on this otherwise humble warrener's cottage.
• 01628 825925, landmarktrust.org.uk, from £434 a week (sleeps two)

Chorister's House, near Ripon, North Yorkshire

Wander through the wide green expanses of the deer park on the Studley Royal estate and you'll spy two buildings close to each other. One is St Mary's Church and the other is the Chorister's House. You will immediately fall in love with the latter and start fantasising about living there.

It was opened to guests this year, which means you can turn your fantasies into (temporary) reality. The house was built in 1873 to accommodate a music master, an organist and a music school, and the interior today remains much as it was then, with original features intact. Deer pass by the front door and, as if this were not enough, guests also have free access to the rest of the Studley Royal estate and Fountains Abbey (a Unesco world heritage site).
• 0844 800 2070, nationaltrustcottages.co.uk, from £964 a week (sleeps 10)

The Summerhouse, Eyton-on-Severn, Shropshire

There's something gloriously Elizabethan about the Eyton Estate. Not only did its former owners, the Earls of Bradford, plunge headlong into the abyss – from a position as the Comptroller and Treasurer of the Royal Household to dissolution and madness in just three generations – their country seat was also destroyed by fire. Happily, The Summerhouse, an early 17th-century octagonal banqueting tower in the grounds, was untouched by the conflagration. It is actually two conjoined octagons: the larger provides living space on two floors, with the smaller containing an oak spiral staircase that ascends to a viewing platform. Climb up to the roof terrace and you can view the Shropshire countryside and ponder on the fate of poor Lady Jane Grey – one lord of the manor, Sir Thomas Bromley, was involved in the disastrous plot to put her on the throne. It is run by the building preservation charity the Vivat Trust which rents out more than 20 properties across Britain.
• 0845 090 0194, vivat-trust.org, from £676 a week (sleeps two)

Rosedene, Dodford, Worcestershire

It's a pity that the Chartists are so little considered nowadays – give or take the occasional University Challenge starter for 10 – for they were extremely big in their early Victorian day. Opened this year, Rosedene is one of the very few Chartist cottages left in Britain. Sitting primly in its own modest grounds in the small village of Dodford, the cottage is surrounded by countryside beneath the Clent Hills. As one might expect from a cottage built by the world's first mass working-class labour movement, it's quite basic inside, but it's a simplicity that is refreshing. You'll feel even more grounded by the good wholesome vegetable plot to the front and the orchard to the rear.

• 0844 800 2070, nationaltrust cottages.co.uk, from £330 a week (sleeps four)

Capheaton Hall, Capheaton, Northumberland

Ever wondered how it would feel to live like landed gentry in a Jacobean mansion? Renting out the entire west wing of the 17th-century Capheaton Hall is probably about as close as any of us will ever come.

Set amid glorious Northumberland countryside, and newly refurbished by the Swinburne family (whose ancestors have lived here for 700 years), the tastefully furnished West Wing is available for rent and comes complete with a drawing room from where you can look out on to the landscaped park and plan your next move: a picnic by the lake, a game of tennis, or an idle wander through the woods with the latest tome by that excellent young poet John Dryden. To cap it all, there's stabling for four horses and a complimentary hamper of fresh fruit and vegetables from the hall's walled garden.
• 01830 530159, capheatonhall.co.uk, from £885 a week (sleeps eight, B&B also available in the East Wing – doubles from £120)

Callie's Cottage, Pendennis Castle, Cornwall

The people who built Callie's Cottage a century ago as a sergeants' mess would little have imagined that one day it would be looked upon as an essential part of Pendennis history.

The wonderfully preserved castle next door was built by Henry VIII in 1545 to ward off possible French or Spanish invasion and was still going strong 100 years later when it was besieged by the Roundheads. Astonishingly, it also saw action in both world wars, by which time the sergeants' mess was also playing its stalwart part in the defence of the area. Opened just last year, this two-bedroom cottage has a sleek and contemporary interior, but as soon as you step outside you're back in the past. Come evening, the glorious Pendennis Castle grounds are all yours, along with the views across the sea towards our (now much friendlier) neighbours. It is one of a select group of a dozen or so cottages available to rent from English Heritage.
• 0870 333 1181, english-heritage.org.uk, from £631 a week (sleeps four, plus cot)

Ballygally Castle, Ballygally, County Antrim

Claiming to be the only 17th-century building still used as a residence in the whole of Northern Ireland, Ballygally Castle has more than a little of the French chateau about it. Perched on the Antrim Coast, it was built in 1625 by a Scot who crossed the Irish Sea to seek his fortune (and was evidently successful). It's had something of an interesting career since then. The castle served as a place of refuge during the civil war, repelled repeated attacks during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and saw service, much later, as a coastguard station, before eventually coming into the hands of a textile millionaire who turned it into a hotel. The bedrooms enjoy views over the sea and back to Scotland.
• 028-2858 1066, hastingshotels.com, room-only doubles from £80 a night

Brodie Castle, near Forres, Moray

No lesser character than Robert the Bruce is said to have granted the Brodie clan the land on which they built the castle that bears their name. That was back in 1311, and clan chiefs were still living in the same place until 2003. When not going off to fight in the civil war and both major Jacobite risings, they filled the rooms, corridors and towers of the current 16th-century castle with antique French furniture, fine porcelain and paintings by the Dutch masters. The 175-acre estate runs to landscaped gardens, a woodland walk, a nature trail, a walled garden and even an adventure playground. In spring, the woods glory in more than 400 varieties of daffodil.
• 0844 493 2108, nts.org.uk, from £1,600 a week (sleeps 14)

Liberton Tower, near Edinburgh

Renting a castle usually means having to cajole at least a dozen friends or relations to join you. Not so at Liberton Tower which, aside from being in immaculate condition, is also a small-scale version of your usual keep, requiring just a small group of guests to garrison it. Believed to date from the 1480s, it has remained largely unaltered and so conveys an idea of what medieval life there might have been like (give or take a few up-to-date comforts). Open the front door at the top of a wooden exterior staircase and you're in the lavishly furnished Great Hall, complete with log fire. The master bedroom sports a four-poster, of course. And if you ascend a ladder to the parapet, prepare yourself for an amazing panorama of Auld Reekie.
• 0845 090 0194, vivat-trust.org, from £675 a week (sleeps four-five)

Ruthin Castle hotel, Denbighshire

While some castles are built on a whim and while their days away in gentle reverie, others amass so much history it pours out of their very stones. Ruthin is very much of the latter persuasion. Even in its earliest days, when just a wooden fort, it is said to have been visited by King Arthur. The first stone castle was built by Edward I, captured by Owain Glyndwr, owned by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, sold by Charles I, and battered by Cromwell's troops. Rebuilt in 1826, it was reputedly the scene of a notorious affair involving a former Prince of Wales. Set in its own woody parkland, the castle has a brand new spa opening this month, and its cuisine, using locally produce, has won awards. You can't help thinking that its walls have never seen quite so much opulence.
• 01824 702664, ruthincastle.co.uk, doubles from £99 a night including breakfast