Lottery funding is not public funding in the same way as monies from the treasury, though, as the participating in the lottery is an entirely voluntary contribution.
Furthermore, The Heritage Lottery Fund, which issues grants to places and areas of historical or artistic interest, will only issue grants to private owners where the gain is greater to the public than it is to the private owner, so, basically, one that's pretty much open to the public.
The way most of these places gain any sort of HFL funding it that they have been turned over to a trust such as National Historic Trust, at least in part, entirely for public use or for hire for particular events. In some cases, the private owner doesn't even live in the castle/big house anymore. They leave that open to the public or turn it over to a trust to run and who can gain funding as a non-profit organisation.
Hence, why a lot of them still entirely in private ownership are either falling into ruin unless owned by the very wealthy, or quite open to the public in order for the owner to cover his/her running costs.
Fools like these people run into trouble because they still want to live in Edwardian times and are too moronic to run such a pile as a profitable business; they're such imbeciles, they seem to see making money as something beneath them whilst the very well crumble around them and they live like sorry dogs in filth. They reap what they sow with their idiocy and insolence.
I don't feel sorry for any of them.