fter a very long drive to Castle Howard, not far from York, we pulled into the car park entrance where a very helpful gentleman passed us a map of the site and directions to where we should begin our tour. We parked in the free car park and proceeded into the stable yard where are located a few sundry shops for nick nack's like Jorvik Glass, a farm shop, a shop where you could get postcards etc and a small bookshop. From here we entered the entrance proper and duly paid our £30 (£10 each) and £4.50 for a guide book. We decided to make our way into the walled garden and had a look around before proceeding to the house. A remarkable lack of signs caused us to retrace our steps all the way back to the beginning, in completely the wrong direction, to get out again, all other entrances appeared locked. There were exits, but "invisible" to me.

NO Cameras

Going into the house the first thing I was politely but firmly informed was that my camera was to be of no use whatsoever as photography was banned within the house! Something to do with security, the family still in residence, or something! Apparently "would be thieves" would not consider "casing the joint" themselves, but would wait until my images were published on the internet before acting on the information, or lack of, they contained. Very peeved at this, as we had made such a long journey. I will not be returning.

Short Tour

The next thing I noticed was just how quickly we managed to take everything in and still found ourselves at the exit having followed the map and circumnavigated only about three quarters of the ground floor and nothing "upstairs" at all. It is possible to take in every guide and still be out within an hour. I was disappointed to be truthful, a bit of a let down. That, and no photography sort of set the whole thing on the back foot, and after a walk in the grounds, made haste back to the car, intent on not repeating my long trip there again. Each to their own, you may visit and find it enjoyable. If you are a big fan of certain tv drama's like Brideshead Revisited and suchlike, then a visit would be worthwhile, seeing where these were filmed. I believe more than one drama has been filmed here.

Windswept

To be fair regarding the extensive grounds, the weather had become decidedly chilly, the cold north wind coming in off the Dales. This caused us to shorten our external tour dramatically as we were dressed for slightly warmer climes.