Castle Howard
Situated amongst the Howardian Hills between York and Malton, Castle Howard is one of my favourite homes in North Yorkshire to visit.
The actual building of the house began in the late 17th Century and took over 100 years to complete. It was the 3rd Earl of Carlisle who asked his friend the dramatist and architect John Vanbrugh to design and construct Castle Howard. Unfortunately Vanbrugh had no building experience at the time so he enlisted the help of Nicholas Hawksmoor a leading Baroque architect to assist him. The design phase of the project took around three years to complete. (Vanbrugh went on to design Blenheim Palace) The house soon started to take shape and by 1725 most of the exterior structure was complete, unfortunately at the time of Vanbrough’s death in 1726 the house was still incomplete, there was no west wing. It was still incomplete in 1738 when the 3rd Earl died. It was the late Earls son in law Sir Thomas Robinson who continued the project and built the West wing with Henry Howard the 4th Earl of Carlisle and it was they who were responsible for the Palladian style of the West wing, compared to the East wing!
Today the house is a popular stately home set in 1,000 acres of the Howardian Hills, it is a thriving rural estate. Within the courtyard are the farm shop, gift shop and book shop along with a fine cafeteria. The Walled Gardens are a place to visit any time of year but through the summer months the borders look magnificent with colour and the scent from the flower beds wafting through the air just about takes your breath away..
I have to say though that one of my favourite times to visit the house is during the run up to Christmas when the home is lavishly decorated througout, the cafeterias and restaraunt also do serve some excellent meals too.
Left 'click' on the images below to expand the gallery.
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