Castle Howard

Castle Howard stands in the gentle North Yorkshire countryside, fifteen miles north of York. It is a grand English country house built on the Henderskelfe estate, begun in 1699 by the 3rd Earl of Carlisle. The house was designed by John Vanbrugh with help from Nicholas Hawksmoor, marking Vanbrugh’s first major building. The estate once stretched over thirteen thousand acres and included five villages. A private railway station served the estate from 1845 until the 1950s. Today the house remains the family home of the Howard family after more than three centuries. The house is famous for its role on screen, appearing in Granada Television’s 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and the 2008 film of the same name. In 1952 it opened to the public for the first time under Lord Howard of Henderskelfe. A serious fire in 1940 destroyed the dome and several principal rooms, but restoration began soon after. Over 269,000 visitors came in 2019 to see the house and its grounds. The estate includes many listed structures, some now on the Heritage at Risk Register. Visitors walk through formal gardens laid out behind the house on a ridge that overlooks the landscape park. Two notable garden buildings, the Temple of the Four Winds and The Mausoleum, punctuate the park. A pair of lakes flank the house, and Ray Wood offers shaded woodland walks. The Walled Garden displays colourful rose and flower borders. Nearby follies such as The Pyramid and The Obelisk add playful touches to the wider estate. Skelf Island provides a treetop adventure area for younger visitors, while the Yorkshire Arboretum offers a separate botanical experience.