Highclere Castle

With our time in England growing short, we embarked on our last major outing. A map consultation showed that Highclere Castle, better known to television fans worldwide as Downton Abbey, was only a short drive from their home. The castle isn’t open to the public very much, but we were in luck and it was open during our stay. So the baby went in the car seat; the pram, baby carrier, diaper bag, snack bag, etc., went into the boot (the trunk); and off we drove down the A34. Half an hour took us to the exit marked for Highlere Castle.

The website suggested following the signs rather than a GPS and that turned out to be good advice. Off the main highway, many of the roads had been rerouted or made one-way to improve traffic flow into and out of the castle grounds.

Me, at the front door, waiting for the family to come out and greet me!

As a devotee of Downton Abbey for several years now, I got a particular kind of shiver as we approached and were directed to a parking place on a wide lawn, right in front of the main door of the castle.  It was almost like arriving at the Abbey as a guest, though instead of being greeted at the front door by the Earl and Countess, we joined the line of ticketed visitors waiting to get inside.

Note: Highclere Castle is owned by an Earl and Countess, but not the Granthams. The place belongs to the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon.

Another note: They didn’t allow photography inside the castle, but you can see images of some of the best-known rooms here: http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/about-us/the-state-rooms.html

You enter and are immediately directed through the main hall and to the left into an area immediately recognizable to viewers of the series: the library. There are actually two parts to the library, and both have featured in a number of scenes of the show. The first and smaller area of the library looks like an office. Several times we’ve seen someone come to the door and be received by Lord Grantham in this section of the library, where his desk is located. Then you proceed through a set of pillars that separates the two parts into arguably the most iconic room of the abbey. This is the area of the library that features two plush red sofas facing each other in front of a grand fireplace. It appears in many episodes of Downton Abbey. The family often gathers here to welcome guests, to have tea, or for a drink before dinner.

A bit of the gardens at Highclere Castle.

You proceed through a series of other rooms, the drawing room, smoking room, music room, etc., most of them also recognizable from scenes in the show. You go upstairs to the “gallery bedrooms,” the luxurious quarters of family and honored guests. Many of the upper rooms have placards indicating whose bedroom it was in the series. After glancing into those, you go back down one of the grand staircases. At the bottom, the saloon is ahead of you and the grand dining room to the left. The saloon is the large, magnificent room at the center of the square castle, with the grandest fireplace, overlooked by the gallery above. This room has featured in many episodes, most notably Edith’s abortive wedding and the Christmas party.

It’s a bit disappointing to learn that the downstairs scenes are not filmed at Highclere, but on a soundstage at Ealing Studios. One can see why. The tour finishes by going downstairs, but it doesn’t look anything like the lower floors of Downton Abbey. The passages are narrow and dark, most of the rooms small and dim. In fact, Highclere’s downstairs is the home of the Egyptian collection, a group of artifacts collected and brought back by the fifth earl of Carnarvon, who accompanied and funded the expeditions of Howard Carter, the man who discovered King Tut’s tomb.

The rear of the castle, seen through the wildflower meadow.

A docent we talked to said that she’d been working there for many years. The place has been open to the public on a limited basis for some twenty to twenty-five years. Visitors used to come mainly to see the collection of Egyptian artifacts on display. She admitted, though, that since the start of the television series, traffic had increased hugely.

A quick trip through several of the narrow, dark corridors downstairs brings you out into a courtyard and face to face with the gift shop and one of several tea rooms on the grounds. I picked up small gifts for family and friends who are fans of the series and we brought out the picnic lunch we’d brought.

After the meal we walked around the extensive grounds. The gardens are almost as magnificent as the castle itself. Colorful banks of flowering plants twist and curve along meandering paths and across open swathes of grass. The property also features a couple of intriguing “follies,” ornamental buildings with no practical purpose. A colonnaded rectangle on top of a low hill not far from the building seems to be there only to make a great view from many of the windows in the public rooms of the castle.

If you’re in Oxford, or the general area, and it happens to be one of the times when the castle is open to the public, I highly recommend it. Even if you’re not a fan of the television show, it provides a remarkable glimpse into the way the English aristocracy lived.