The Stunning Interior of Inveraray Castle’s State Dining Room

In the late 18th century, the 5th Duke of Argyll, keen to impress his guests with the latest Georgian fashions, decided to remodel some of the castle's 80 rooms in a more decorative style. So this is the state dining room. I mean, it's incredibly elaborate. It was hand-painted by two French artists who came over here and lived here, and they did this stateroom and the stateroom next door. You look at the roundels. Those are actually painted. They're flat relief. Great skills. Incredible skills. And the colours are still very vibrant. The months, I guess, to create a room like this, right? All hand-painted. It must have taken forever. And in fact, the mirrors are designed so the table is central to the chandelier and everything will be reflected over and over again through the mirrors because they're by the end of the room. It's just absolutely beautiful. And furniture. All designed for the room. We've barely changed things. Everything's as original as it was, but not the nicer folks. Do you use this room ever? Yes, so our eldest son had his confirmation last month. So he was confirmed in the town, and then we had a big family dinner where there were 25 of us. We sat in this room and used it as it should have been. I love that. And the ships on the table. So they're German and each one does something. So the one over there has got a little spout on it. That would have poured wine. Some had food, you put sweet meats into it and you'd wheel them up and down the table. It was a good thing. You're kidding me. You'd take the top off and then just sort of wheel them up and down the table. Instead of a Chinese restaurant where you turn the thing around in the middle, this was your Scottish equivalent. The chandelier, I'm totally drawn to that. The chandelier original, again. So that's Waterford Crystal, original to the room, and then I clean it every few years. I take every single bit down. I line it across for all numbered with bits of paper and if the wind blows, I'll cry. And then I clean each bit and then hook it back in again. And you can see, if you look closely, you can see where each Dutch is through the years. We put it back together, bits of blue tight, bits of fishing wire. You can see each generation's had another go at putting it back together. How long does it take you though to clean that? It takes a full day to clean that. I thought you were going to say something longer though. No, but we have three chandeliers, so it takes three whole days and it does make a huge difference. You hang it back up, it's exquisite.