York Residents Festival - Castle Howard - The Big House

York Residents Festival isn't restricted to places within the city - there are several out of town locations that allow free access during the Festival. One of these is Castle Howard, located in the Howardian Hills, some 15 miles to the north-east of York. Getting there involved travel on a bus which took us on a tour of numerous attractive villages, and which suggested several future photo locations.

Castle Howard is a private residence, and has been the home of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family for more than 300 years. Building began in 1699 and took over 100 years to complete to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle. In the summer months parts of the house are open to the public, but at this time of year only the grounds can be explored. There is much to see in the grounds - lakes, woodland, gardens, sculptures and follies, and we spent almost 5 hours exploring.

This shot shows the south front (rear) of the building from a formal garden terrace.

The house and grounds have been used on several occasions as a film location. Perhaps it's most famous use was in the 1981 TV series Brideshead Revisited.

Ian

[Casablanca]

I love Castle Howard! Brilliant place with, as you so rightly say, so much to see and explore. I'm also old enough to remember Brideshead Revisited!

Nice shot of a lovely place.

[bruni]

Very impressive. Love to visit castles when in Europe. Hi

[Claude Trew]

A lovely stately home. I will have to put it on the list to visit when I go North.

[Lynne Hart]

Great stately home, lovely old building.

[Pyrrhula]

Amazing what humans can build and create. A beautiful capture of this nice garden and great building. fav.

[Babs]

A very impressive residence.

[Kim Crisp]

What a great building, nicely shown.

[Tony]

Brilliantly captured grand structure. Amazing that it took 100 years to build. What must it have cost ?? Fav

[Margo]

Magnificent house

[bkb in the city]

What a wonderful building

[KWind]

Wow... that place is huge. Nice image of it.

[Taffy]

Looks like quite a special place to explore. Very imposing!

[Janet]

What a massive pile! I hadn't realised it was so big. I saw it was used for the 'Victoria' series last year.

[Dione Giorgio]

Magnificent building. A beautiful capture of it and thank you for the story. A great place to visit.

[Fisher Family]

@casablanca @bruni @claudiet @lhart @pyrrhula @onewing @kimcrisp @tonydebont @777margo @bkbinthecity @kwind @taffy @janturnbull @sangwann

Wow, what a response - thank you all for your comments and favs, which put this shot on the Trending and Popular pages!

It is a huge house and estate - it makes me wonder just how wealthy the family were to even consider building a place this large. They did, and it's great that we can still go and explore it.

Ian

[Josie Gilbert]

Great photo and lovely to see Castle Howard. During the summer I work as a guide at Arundel Castle, which is owned by another branch of the Howard family.

[Kathy A]

Fabulous looking building

[Fisher Family]

@josiegilbert

Thank you Josie - I hadn't realised that Arundel Castle belonged to part of the Howard family. It mist be interesting working as a guide there.

Ian

[Fisher Family]

@kjarn

Thank you Kathy - I really need to go on a tour of the house one day!

Ian

[Josie Gilbert]

@fishers The link goes back a couple of centuries, so they're only distantly related. It is an interesting place to work. If you're ever down this way, it's worth a visit. It's closed for the season now, but once it re-opens, I'll start posting photos of Arundel Castle.

[Fisher Family]

@josiegilbert

I look forward to seeing those photos Josie.

Ian