From royal castles to private houses, Britain and Ireland have a rich national heritage of fine art collections. This is a directory of that heritage, and with maps and historical analysis it locates every significant collection open to the public. The diversity of the collection is enormous, ranging from the Royal collection at Windsor Castle to the Stanley Spencer museum, housed in the austere chapel at Cookham. The atlas describes how these individual collections were assembled, adding a wealth of detail about the eccentric mania for collecting which has resulted in a national fine art inheritance. Colour maps show where the collections are to be found, followed by a brief outline of the major works of art that can be seen by the public in over 600 places.