Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last three years, you know that Downton Abbey is a beloved British drama series watched widely around the world. Much to my delight, I recently got to get inside the glorious Highclere Castle where the program is filmed! Tour groups are flooding the castle with ticket requests so this was no easy feat.
Serendipity would have it that a Cunard cruise to Norway from Southampton that I planned coincided with a bank holiday weekend in London, a day when the Castle was open. Advance purchase tickets were sold out, but undeterred, I made plans to meet friends and visit Highclere Castle and just knew we’d somehow get entrance.
Early on a Sunday morning, I disembarked from the cruise ship, took a train to Waterloo station, transferred to the underground “tube” and checked into my hotel. I then hopped back on the tube, met my friends at Paddington Station, took another 45 minute train ride to Newbury station, took a short cab ride, ignored a sign that said “castle closed” (though our hearts did sink), turned a corner and gasped at our first view of the castle, found a queue of about a dozen other fans, got tickets and we were in! There was a country fair held near the Castle that day, so I’m thinking the “closed” sign was meant to deter throngs of fairgoers from descending upon the castle.
Extending the anticipation, we first sipped tea and ate scones on a gloriously sunny day on the rolling castle grounds that cover 1,000 acres. We were then guided by knowledgeable docents to the sitting room where the Dowager Countess often drops her dry comments, checked out the mahogany desk and chair in the Music Room that had belonged to Napoleon; wandered the dining room where we learned that the show’s production folks bring in all their own dinnerware and catered meals, peeked into several of the characters’ bedrooms, marveled at the marble-pillared entrance hall, and could have lingered longer in the library with more than 5,000 books. The house is a treasure trove of art, antiques, 15th century Italian embroideries, silk bed hangings and of course, antiquities from Egypt.
A visit to Downton Abbey was a very special end to an already spectacular vacation!