For the last five years, ITV’s popular period drama, Downton Abbey, has been unveiling the world of running a country estate. As the final chapter of the Downton story unfolds, viewers are once again invited into the tempestuous lives of the estate owners, their servants and staff.

We see Lady Mary Crawley as she picks up the reins of managing the estate in 1925. Ultimately what we are witnessing is the realisation that without a strong, diversified income stream there is no future in the estate. As a 21st-century estate manager, fortunate enough now to be chief executive of glorious Scone Palace in Perthshire, I understand her position well.

What Lady Mary will need is clarity of purpose and a great deal of creative and strategic thinking. She will find that there is no such thing as a typical day in the office, just as I do at Scone where, with a major visitor attraction and 26,000 acres of estate incorporating a wide range of other enterprises, no two days are ever the same. She will need to surround herself with an expert team, who are committed to the cause, whilst steering the direction of the estate. The role is wide and varied but essentially it is all about business management. Business management, combined with a desire to succeed and a willingness for change, is at the heart of modern management of country estates.

The variety that comes with estate management is one of the things I love about my role, but it is also the biggest challenge. The demands of each element of the business must be juggled, making sure each is performing to its best but within the overall context of the estate. A successful estate has to evolve, continually seeking new income streams to be explored and developing new ideas.

The move from managing an estate in a traditional way to operating it as a business is a fundamental starting point for ensuring it is here for future years. Downton Abbey may be about to disappear from our screens, but estate managers are committed to the real-life British country estates that continue to flourish in the modern world and make up the landscape that we all enjoy.

Take a look at our gallery of rural estates, and find your very own Downton Abbey.