Castle Howard

Castle Howard: The House That Started Without an Architect

Castle Howard was the first building that John Vanbrugh ever designed. He had no architectural training. He was a playwright and a soldier, and in 1699 the third Earl of Carlisle asked him to design a house to replace the one at Henderskelfe that had burned down. What emerged over the following decade, with Nicholas Hawksmoor doing the technical drawings that Vanbrugh couldn’t produce himself, was one of the great baroque country houses in Britain: a full-length south front with a central dome, corner towers, wings extending east and west, and 1,000 acres of designed landscape stretching to the horizon.

The west wing was never completed to Vanbrugh’s original design; the third Earl’s son had it finished in a Palladian style that clashes noticeably with the baroque centre. Vanbrugh is supposed to have been horrified when he saw it. The house has been in the Howard family continuously since construction began, and is privately owned and operated today.

The House

Entry to house and gardens costs £18.95 for adults, £9.95 for children; gardens only is £11.95. The ticket office opens at 10am with final admission at 5pm; house entry begins at 10:30am. Open daily through the main season.

Inside, the Great Hall under the central dome is the visual centrepiece: Pellegrini’s murals on the drum walls, natural light from the lantern above, stone flooring that gives the space its acoustic weight. The picture collection includes works by Van Dyck, Gainsborough, and Cuyp. The Long Gallery runs the full south-facing length of the house. The room sequence is coherent and well-labelled; this is one of the country houses worth taking time in rather than rushing.

Brideshead Revisited was filmed here in 1981 (the television adaptation with Jeremy Irons) and the series brought Castle Howard to international attention in a way its architecture alone hadn’t managed. You will see references to this at every turn; make your peace with it.

The Gardens and Parkland

The grounds extend over 1,000 acres and the designed landscape is as important as the house. The main formal garden is the walled Ray Wood, with a rare botanical collection. The Temple of the Four Winds (also by Vanbrugh, completed in 1728) sits on the east lawn at the end of a formal path. The Mausoleum (1729, designed by Hawksmoor) sits a mile away in the parkland and is one of the most architecturally significant garden buildings in England: circular, with a peristyle of Tuscan columns, used as the family burial place to this day.

Skelf Island, the adventure playground across the Great Lake, is well-designed for children and genuinely good. The lake itself and the wider parkland are walkable for hours.

Getting There

Castle Howard is 15km north of York on the B1257. There is no train station closer than York; from York, taxis cost around £20-25 each way, or several tour operators run half-day coach excursions from the city. Driving is the practical option if you have a car. The entrance is clearly signposted off the A64 east of York.

Where to Stay and Eat

York is the obvious overnight base: 30 minutes by car, with accommodation from budget guesthouses to the Grand Hotel and Spa at York station. For something closer, the estate village of Coneysthorpe and the surrounding villages have self-catering options.

The Castle Howard estate café in the stable courtyard is a reliable stop for lunch: soup, sandwiches, hot meals. Reasonable for a country house operation. For dinner after your visit, the nearby village of Slingsby has the Grapes Inn; Malton, 8km east, has a dedicated food town reputation with several good restaurants concentrated in its market square.