Highclere Castle

For my wife, this was one of the highlights of our trip to England.
As a big fan of Downton Abbey, my wife wore a charming sun dress despite the fact the weather was chilly. I obliged and wore a suit jacket as well, just in case we were asked to tea.
Descending the grand stairway was on my wife’s «bucket list».
Check!
(In fact, we descended, backtracked, descended, re-​ascended and descended again. So… check, check, check. One of the ladies working at the house thought we were practicing for a wedding entrance!)
We booked the afternoon time slot, arrived earlier to wander the grounds and have lunch, then spent hours more in the house itself.
If you have any interest in Egyptology, you may find the basement display interesting.
Be aware that if you stay until closing time, you may have a hard time finding a taxi to take you back to the train station.
We assumed there would be taxis waiting, but there were none to be found!
Confronted with the possibility of roughing it outdoors in the English countryside, I hightailed back to the shop and the ladies there were kind enough to phone a car service for us.
The gentleman who arrived to ferry us back to the station (Cliff Verrall of Four Oaks Cars —
, 0747 8 699 313) offered fast and friendly service. If I were returning to Highclere or I had a friend visiting the castle, I would recommend they contact Cliff to see if he could provide transport to and from the station.

«What is a weekend?» — The Dowager
«Why does every day involve a fight with an American?» — The Dowager
«Do they realize they are playing different songs?» — The Dowager
Fans like me will love this place. On the outside, its as awesome as it looks on television. As with all «castles» I’ve visited, everything is going to be old and worn down, especially the interiori! Apparently, before the show took off, £12 million in repairs were needed. (
) The place still needs some TLC, so hopefully fans will continue to visit and support the castle long after the show is over.
Also, if you’re not a Downton Abbey fan, why bother taking the time, energy, and money to get out here? Go visit Windsor Castle or Stone Henge instead. Plus you’re taking up precious limited space of a Downton Abbey fan! Also fellow Americans, be respectful and don’t touch anything you’re not supposed to.

I lucked out with the weather. It was absolutely perfect in May, which from what I understand from citizens, this is extremely rare. Thus, the pictures you’ll see attached to this review are quite good in my opinion based solely off the fact that we got terrific weather.
I didn’t have enough time to take the tour inside, which would have been really cool, but I had a flight to catch back to the states. So, I just bought a grounds pass for $ 5 or something, and spent the next 15 – 20 minutes walking the grounds and taking pictures. It was breath taking. The Castle actually met my expectactions with its size and feeling of empowerment. It was kind of cool.
Oh, and yes, there is definitely nostalgia if you’re into the Downton Abbey show. You’ll giggle like a 5 year old that you’re in sort of a fantasy world. I didn’t care… I let it all sink in and enjoyed it as best I can.
If I ever get back (which is unlikely), I would like to try and have a bit more time to take the full tour inside, but I think my bucket list is suffice that I made it onto the grounds and were able to take some magnificent pictures with the impeccable weather we had that day.
Highly recommend you venture out if the time of year is right and you can get tickets early enough or get to the Castle early enough for stand by, which is what I did no problems.
TIP: Drive a capable car as you drive up dirt roads and park in a field.

Visiting the location of Downton Abbey filming was surreal. Will recommend booking far in advance as this property is a private home and used in filming it is not open every day.
Besides the extensive beautiful grounds do yourself a favor and have a SCONE… best scone of my life. I spent the rest of my trip trying to find something that came close and failed. Wish I’d had two!

Downton Abbey alive in front of you. The real Lady Carnavon welcomed the group and we toured the rooms we see on TV. Great sunny October day made a fabulous day out from London and a fun tour of this working estate. I soaked in all the ambience for all you fans at home.

Being a Downton Abbey fan, I had to visit this castle. It took about 2 hours from London via train (we changed at Reading) and 10−15min on a taxi from the station.
We arrived at the ticket office around 1:30pm and luckily they still had tickets for the castle & garden. There’s only one way to go through the castle, so we just follow the crowd and looked at all the available rooms. It was such a great experience! Staff members were knowledgeable and they even had laminated copies of paper for us, explaining key objects in each room. There were photos of the current Earl and Countess everywhere!
After the self-​guided tour, we had tea at the renovated Coach House. There were 3 tea rooms on the premise, all serving lunch and tea. They didn’t have the afternoon tea set like I imagined, but I still enjoyed their scone and jam-​filled donut.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the castle. When you walk through the grass field, you can enjoy several well-​kept gardens and lots of sheep!
It was an amazing getaway from London. It’s a little far from London and they only open the castle to the general public during the summer, but you won’t be disappointed once you see this beautiful property. They even have a cute gift shop.

Ja… seufz… Highclere Castle…
Warum dieser Seufzer? Das werden fast nur diejenigen verstehen können, die ebenfalls bekennende Fans der Britischen Fernsehserie «Downton Abbey» sind. Mich würde ehrlich interessieren, wie viele Besucher dieses Schloss hatte, bevor es durch die Serie zusätzlich berühmt wurde.
Man darf sich aber nicht täuschen lassen. Dieses Schloss hat seine eigene Geschichte, und diese ist auf ihre Art ebenso bemerkenswert. Auch wenn das heutige Schloss in seiner Bauweise schon teilweise (vor allem im Inneren mit seinem neogotischen Stil) hart an der Grenze zur Geschmacklosigkeit vorbei schrammt, ist es zugleich faszinierend. In einer phantastischen Landschaft gelegen, taucht der quadratische Bau mit seinen gradlinigen Fassaden auf, die in ihrer Symmetrie an Baudetails der mittel– und nordeuropäischen Renaissance, im Mischstil «Jacobethan» der britischen Kunstgeschichte erinnern.
Seit 1692 befindet sich das Anwesen im Besitz der Familie Herbert. Der Bauherr des heutigen Schlosses war Henry Herbert, 3. Earl of Carnarvon. Und jetzt wird es spannend. George Herbert, 5. Earl of Carnarvon wurde nicht nur in Highclere Castle geboren, sondern erbte auch den Besitz, wurde der erste «Lord Carnarvon» und finanzierte später die Ausgrabungen Howard Carters in Ägypten. Dieser entdeckte bei seinen umfangreichen Grabungen im Tal der Könige auch das Grab des Tutanchamuns.
Das ist nicht nur eine kleine Randnotiz der Geschichte, sondern auch der Grund für die umfangreiche Ägyptische Ausstellung die in Highclere Castle zu bestaunen ist.

Had a wonderful visit last weekend.
Took the train from London to Newbury, and then a $ 20 taxi ride to Highclere, which was a 6 mile drive.
It takes an hour or less to walk through the open portion of the castle. 10 bedrooms, the library, the sitting room, smoking room, dining room, etc, are open. Each has a staff member inside to answer questions & tell stories.
You cannot take pictures inside, but they allow you to spend the whole day outside in the extensive gardens.
We brought a bottle of wine and sandwiches and had a picnic outside.
If you CANNOT get tickets, you can still drive to the castle when it’s open, park in the lot, and take pictures.
I’d also recommend spending part of the day in Newbury. Cobblestone streets and pubs — lots of places to choose from.

If you are a Downton Abbey fan, Highclere Castle is worth a visit. Not too far from Oxford, it is easy to rent a car and drive out to the Newbury in about 20 minutes or so.
Although they do not provide guided tours, the guides are very friendly and provide tidbits of history as you walk from room to room. They also have signs up for some of the rooms so you can identify each character’s bedroom. The best part for us was seeing the library and the main staircase.
The outside grounds are expansive but I expected a bit more. Most other castles we have visited have more impressive gardens.

Grounds and castle are stunning. Interior is surprisingly shabby but very fun to see for Downton Abbey fans! Absolutely worth a visit – even just to take some photos of the castle and grounds.
No photos of the interior are allowed. It is fun to see the art and the furnishings which seem untouched for centuries. There are also modern things like electric heaters that clearly aren’t in the show. The below stairs servants’ quarters and kitchen are not part of the tour and scenes from them in the show are filmed in a studio. Very cool to see the salon, the dining room and the bedrooms and the hallways where you can picture the DA family and servants walking about.

Auf dem Rückweg von einem Geschäftstermin nach London-​Heathrow kamen wir kürzlich zufällig an Highclere Castle vorbei. Seit im Dezember 2012 die TV-​Serie Downton Abbey auch in Deutschland ausgestrahlt wurde und bei uns die gleiche Begeisterung wie in UK ausgelöst hat, ist der Besitz unter diesem neuen Namen sicher viel berühmter als zuvor. Graf Robert Grantham und seine Familie nebst umfangreicher Dienerschaft bestehen in dieser Serie zahlreiche Abenteuer im Verlauf der allgemeinen Weltgeschichte. Mein britischer Begleiter, der etwas von Gärten versteht, erzählte mir, dass es im Park von Highclere Castle zahlreiche seltene alte Bäume gibt. Das Anwesen liegt sehr idyllisch und es soll ein gutes Café im Schloss geben. Leider war geschlossen, als wir da waren.

I had a wonderful visit here in August 2012. I went via BritMovieTours out of London, which was wonderful as we also made a stop in Bampton, the village that stands in for Downton in the Downton Abbey series. But it’s easy to get to Highclere by train from London or Oxford — just take a taxi from Newbury station. Though a big fan of the series, I was pleased that they are not really exploiting the Downton Abbey connection — there are some signs noting that this room was so-and-so’s bedroom etc. in the series, and some photos here and there (Before it was Downton it was Totleigh Towers in the ‘Jeeves & Wooster’ series with Hugh Laurie & Stephen Fry, but you won’t find that out here either). You can tour on your own or go round with a guide. I had an information sheet from BritMovie so went around on my own. I understood someone to say the guides do not have information about DA filming, eirther. But, you’re basically on the filmset; with a few exceptions, the furniture and décor etc that you see in the series is really part of Highclere: the red velvet sofas, the green silk wall-​covering in the drawing room, the Van Dyck portrait of King Charles I in the dining room, that great hall!!! No photos of the interior are permitted. Also note while there is a nice gift shop, they do not carry any items (at least as of my visit), to do with the filming of DA. (but if you go to Bampton they sell a nice locally-​produced booklet for 5 pounds at the village Library — which is the cottage Hospital in the series). The former servant’s quarters below stairs are far more intact that I expected, and though not officially part of the tour, were very interesting. I especially liked the copper jelly moulds with the Carnarvon crest on them in the room that now serves as one of the tea rooms. They have very nice teas — hot dishes made fresh, or packaged sandwiches, and tea itself is served in a little individual tea pot — very cute (and prices are reasonable). There is another tea-​serving area in a converted carriage house, and also a tent on the lawn, with some outdoor tables about. You can roam about the gardens as well, which are lovely. It’s thrilling to see another intact Capability Brown landscape (…every tree is just right where it ought to be). There are not that many rooms in the castle available to tour, so you can see everything in a short amount of time. My friends came by train from Oxford, and asked the taxi to pick them up in 2 hours, but found they were ready to go after about 1 hour. The ladies on duty kindly phoned the taxi for them and he came right away, as he was already returning to the castle with another pair of tourists. I really enjoyed being there, and didn’t want to leave.

Film location for Downton Abbey and one of Jordan’s many wedding venues, it’s a stately home not a castle.
A previous Earl Carnarvon helped Howard Carter break into the pyramids and steal loads of ancient artefacts, which you can now see in the castle for £9 ticket (adults, under 4s free).
The exhibition is in the servants’ quarters, and was packed with coachloads of pensioners, so can get stuffy. This could also be to do with exhibition opening times of 11am to 5pm, which creates a bottleneck.
The kids were very interested, and I had no idea how many national treasures they have in their private collection.
Worth a one-​off trip to exhibition if you’re kicking around. The ‘mummy’ and sarcophagus was almost worth the ticket alone.
Desperately needs updating though. Branded signage, places to leave comments, more outdoor seating.