Willie, The National Trust ( and its Scottish counterpart) is a charity funded by volunteers and some government grants, lottery money etc. which preserves stately homes and great tracts of countryside to protect them from demolition/development. Often they are handed over by "the aristocracy" in lieu of death duties, often with the toffs being allowed to live in one wing or cottage but pretend they still own it all!
They are mostly open to the public except for a couple of winter months when they do maintenance. The open lands are usually open all the time. One of the projects was "Operation Neptune" which tries to buy as much of the coastal strip as possible to prevent it being developed so people can still get access.
The Scottish one has a web page at: http://www.nts.org.uk/
Click Here