Talk:List of country and estate houses in Scotland

Castles?

Seeing as we have both List of castles in Scotland and this list, how are we making a distinction? I don't want to be dogmatic and insist a building can't appear in both (or neither) but is there a guideline? For example, it is clear to me that Balmoral Castle is nothing of the sort but is a country house (though I'd have it in both lists). Braemar Castle seems to me to be a real castle and I'd remove it from being a country house. But what about Cluny Castle? I have no idea. And Fetternear Palace, which I have just added and then saw it is in the excellent category:Episcopal palaces in Scotland. Should that be in either list because it wasn't quite a country house (well, perhaps it was) but it certainly wasn't a castle? Does the state of repair, current use, or name come into consideration at all? The lead of List of castles in Scotland and a discussion here are relevant. Thincat (talk) 14:20, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Its pretty much impossible to make a hard and fast distinction. Lots of estate houses in Scotland are called castles and some castles are called houses. A distinction could be chronological, but I am not entirely sure when the cut off point would be. One of my guides from the 1970s took a brutally pragmatic approach and decided if it was called a castle, it was a castle.--SabreBD (talk) 16:12, 4 June 2014 (UTC)