Highclere Castle

The Carnarvon family have held Highclere since 1679, and Charles Barry rebuilt the house between 1839 and 1878 in an Italianate and Jacobean revival style while he was also working on the Houses of Parliament, which the exterior visibly echoes. The fifth Earl funded Howard Carter's excavations in Egypt and was present at the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922; he died in Cairo months later from an infected mosquito bite, which fed the tomb-curse story. A collection of Egyptian antiquities he acquired before Tutankhamun, rediscovered walled up in a cellar in 1987, is displayed downstairs. Since 2010 the house has been Downton Abbey, filmed here across six series and three films, and that is what brings most visitors and what the opening arrangements are built around.

What you actually see

• The Barry exterior - Italianate towers echoing the Houses of Parliament.
• The Egyptian cellars - antiquities found walled up in 1987.
• The Downton rooms - the saloon, library and bedrooms used in filming.
• The Capability Brown park - eighteenth-century landscape around the house.

When to go

July to September, the main open season, plus scattered dates at Easter and Christmas; the house is a private home and closed most of the year. Timed tickets are released in batches and sell out within days.

Honest expectations

Opening is limited to a few weeks a year and tickets go almost immediately. Photography inside is prohibited. The Egyptian exhibition is small. Public transport does not realistically reach it.

Nearby

Newbury lies north; the North Wessex Downs surround the estate.