DON’T MISS

Castle Howard

You may recognise this stately home—a house so grand it makes Kensington Palace look middle class—from the much-loved BBC adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. Or from the recent newspaper articles that gleefully covered the story of the two heirs (and brothers) battling for ownership of it in the courts.

And it’s easy to see why they would go into battle for it. Castle Howard, 25 kilometres north of York, is not just any old stately home. Designed by Blenheim Palace creator John Vanbrugh in 1699 for Charles Howard, the third Earl of Carlisle, it is a masterpiece of architecture and landscaping. A spectacular dome tops the majestic building, which took 100 years to complete, and the facades are carved with hundreds of statues. The 4,000-hectare estate on which it sits includes lakes, a mausoleum by another great architect of the early 18th century (Nicholas Hawksmoor), peacocks, secret gardens, temples, mazes, five villages and 13 farms.