A COLLECTION of iconic castles, country houses and outstanding landscapes from the UK have been added to Google Street View, available through Google Maps.

Mount Stewart House and Gardens, and Downhill Demesne and Hezlett House are included in the list of 20 National Trust properties and landscapes which can be explored online, giving people around the world the chance to plan a visit or catch a glimpse of places they might otherwise never see.

This is the first time a large number of visitor attractions have been added to Street View UK in one go. The images give a 360 degree ground level tour of the outside of the National Trust sites via a specially created online tour at http://www.maps.google.co.uk/streetview.

Other locations include some iconic sites such as Lindisfarne Castle in Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Stonehenge Landscape in Wiltshire.

The images were taken late last summer using the Google Trike - a three wheeled bike with a Street View camera mounted on it, perfectly suited to collecting images in places not easily accessible by car. It's estimated that the cyclists covered 125 miles on the 18 stone (114.3kg) Trike, moving at an average speed of two miles per hour, whilst collecting the National Trust images.

Since then, the images have been processed and carefully stitched together by Google to give a seamless 360 degree view of the various buildings, parts of their grounds and landscapes where accessible, and on a route designed in conjunction with the Trust.

Max Bryant, General Manager for the North Coast including Downhill Demesne and Hezlett House said: "Google Street View will enable even more people to take a peek and get a sense of what Downhill has to offer. It's fantastic to think that people from around the world, who might never be able to travel to Northern Ireland, will be able to enjoy a virtual visit and see the stunning landscape park of Downhill Demesne, with its beautiful sheltered gardens and magnificent cliff top walks."

Susan Roberts, Visitor Services Manager at Mount Stewart House and Gardens added: "This is a wonderful opportunity to give people from around the world the chance to plan a visit and see the exotic luxuriance of Mount Stewart's celebrated gardens. The landscape garden, created in the 1920's by Edith, Lady Londonderry, is one of Northern Ireland's most popular Trust properties.

Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist from Google said: "Places like Downhill Demesne and Mount Stewart offer all of us a special glimpse of the history, nature and architecture up and down the country.

"We were delighted to be able to open up some of the UK's most famous landmarks to the rest of the world, via the web. It's a fun way to gen up on what to see and do on a day out or whet your appetite for where to go next."

The Google Trike will collect images at several other National Trust properties in 2010, including the Giant's Causeway world heritage site, currently the focus of a major £2.25million fundraising campaign. These locations will be available later in the year.

To take a virtual tour visit www.maps.google.co.uk/streetview and click on the National Trust logo towards the bottom of the page.