It comprises some 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) of countryside in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, extending 10 miles (16 km) west from the River Ure near Masham.

[3] Beyond the parkland surrounding the house, the estate comprises farmland and large areas of grouse moor in and around the valley of the River Burn.

His successors built the stable block and gatehouse and, during the 1760s, planted the parkland and created the chain of five lakes.

[5] Danby altered and extended the house, giving it the Gothic aspect it retains, in two building campaigns, to designs of the Yorkshire mason-architect John Foss of Richmond (1745–1827),[6] who became a close personal friend.

Danby was not finished: further Gothic alterations were effected by Robert Lugar: turrets and battlements were added, so that the building took on the appearance of a castle; the richly furnished museum of minerals, which has since become a family chapel, was built, and at the same time a tower[7] Describing a tour which he made in 1829, the poet Robert Southey remarked, "The most interesting person whom I saw during this expedition was Mr Danby of Swinton Park, a man of very large fortune, and now very old.

Danby died in 1833, but his widow continued to live at the house with her second husband, naval officer Octavius Vernon Harcourt (High Sheriff for 1849) until her own death in 1879.

[11] The earliest record of the gardens dates from 1699 when a design by George London was laid out, with fountains added a few years later.

[14] The wider estate comprises farmland, woodland and moorland, as well as properties in the town of Masham and nearby villages.

The moors are habitat for ground nesting birds, including the hen harrier, which has generated controversy for potential conflict with grouse shoot management.