Strong interest in heritage-led itineraries has been fueled by a renewed fascination with Regency and period worlds that has been building for over a decade from Downton Abbey to Bridgerton. With the next wave of literary adaptations due this year, there’s a clear shift towards travel that feels immersive and culturally rich.
Spending time in centuries-old houses with the families who still run them brings a depth and intimacy that screen portrayals can’t replicate.
Meet Viscountess Violet Garnock, the founder and curator of HeritageXplore‘s exclusive heritage experiences in England and Scotland. Violet personally curates and leads HeritageXplore’s heritage-immersive tours in the UK.
Born at England’s Belvoir Castle, familiar to Netflix viewers as the stand-in for Windsor Castle on “The Crown,” Violet is passionate about showing heritage as it really is and guiding people to it. Understanding the lifestyles of “Bridgerton,” “Downton Abbey” and “The Crown” firsthand, Violet has lived British history herself and is eager to share her stories and the experiences of others who live it a well. Violet is now based between Scotland and London.
Violet shares her insider’s point-of-view, “I confess I didn’t grow up visiting historic houses. I grew up inside one. Watching people fall in love with history, I saw early on the joy of walking through history rather than simply reading about it.”
Violet founded HeritageXplore to champion independent historic houses and help more people spend time in them.
Lady Violet Manners grew up in Belvoir Castle — meaning “beautiful view” in Norman French but pronounced “Beaver” in the UK — and spent most of her life there. She is the oldest of five siblings.
In July 2024, Violet became engaged in Colorado to Viscount William Garnock, a Scottish nobleman with a deep affinity for the American West and its enduring spirit of independence. William is the founder of Feragaia, Scotland’s pioneering distilled alcohol-free spirit.
Violet and William were married in June 2025 at Belvoir Castle, marking the first Manners family wedding there in over thirty years. Following their marriage, Lady Violet Manners became Viscountess Violet Garnock.
Violet studied at Queen Margaret’s School in Yorkshire, and at UCLA in Los Angeles. It was in the US that she became aware of the joy that people experienced when immersing themselves in heritage and history. Upon her return to London in 2020, together with her mother Emma, Duchess of Rutland, Violet founded Duchess, a podcast about heritage. Duchess explores independent historic houses through the women who live in them. In less than two years, Duchess achieved a listenership of 2.5 million worldwide.
What began as a hobby led to Violet’s founding HeritageXplore in 2023. HeritageXplore recognizes that there are many extraordinary independent historic houses “hidden in plain sight,” castles and estates often mistaken for being part of the National Trust or English Heritage or ones that were simply unknown.
HeritageXplore brings the UK’s finest independent historic houses into one place, with multi-property immersions and events that offer the experiences that Violet had grown up with. HeritageXplore is designed to make it easier to discover, plan and book a visit to experience these private and unknown marvels that remain part of the UK’s living and breathing heritage. Three first-time programs, the Tri-annual Luxury Tour, are scheduled for April, May and July 2026 in England and Scotland.
Follow Violet on Instagram @mannersviolet.