Castle Howard - Discount Hotel Reservations York Hotels

Castle Howard is a stately home in Yorkshire, England, 25 miles (40 km) north of York. It is one of the very grandest private residences in the country. Most was built from 1699 - 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh. It is not a true castle: the word is quite often used for country houses in England which were built after the end of the castle-building era (c.1500) and were not intending to have any military function. It has been the home of the Howard family for over 300 years.

Immersed in the deep countryside of the Howardian Hills, fifteen miles northeast of York, off the A64, Castle Howard (March-Oct daily 11am-5pm; gardens open at 10am; ) is the seat of one of England's leading aristocratic families and among the country's grandest stately homes. Since providing the setting for the television version of Brideshead Revisited , the house's car parks have been packed every weekend, but fitting it into a public transport itinerary is something of a problem. In summer there are just two Yorkshire Coastliner buses a day (one on Sun) from York, but various bus tours can bring you out and back, too.

The colossal main house was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1699 and was almost forty years in the making - remarkable enough, were it not for the fact that Vanbrugh was, at the start of the commission at least, best known as a playwright and had no formal architectural training. Shrewdly, Vanbrugh recognized his limitations and called upon the assistance of Nicholas Hawksmoor, who had a major part in the house's structural design - the pair later worked successfully together on Blenheim Palace. If Hawksmoor's guiding hand can be seen throughout, Vanbrugh's influence is clear in the very theatricality of the building, notably in the palatial Great Hall . This was gutted by fire in the 1940s, but has subsequently been restored from old etchings and photographs to something approaching its original state.

Vanbrugh soon turned his attention to the estate's thousand-acre grounds where he could indulge his playful inclinations to excess, and the formal gardens, clipped parkland, towers, obelisks and blunt sandstone follies stretch in all directions, sloping gently to a large artifical lake. He completed the Temple of the Four Winds before his death in 1726, leaving Hawskmoor to design the Howard family Mausoleum , which is taller than the house itself. Take a look, too, at the fine stables which have been converted into the Costume and Regalia Gallery, Britain's largest private collection of period clothes.

Castle Howard has extensive and diverse gardens. There is a large formal garden immediately behind the house. The house is prominently situated on a ridge and this was exploited to create a landscape garden, which opens out from the formal garden and merges with the park. Two major garden buildings are set into this landscape: the Temple of the Four Winds at the end of the garden, and the Mausoleum in the park. There is also a lake on either side of the house. There is an arboretum called Ray Wood, and the walled garden contains decorative rose and flower gardens.

Fountain and house.There is also a separate 127 acre (514,000 m²) arboretum called Kew at Castle Howard, which is close to the house and garden, but has separate entrance arrangements. Planting began in 1975, with the intention of creating one of the most important collections of specimen trees in the United Kingdom. The landscape is more open than that of Ray Wood, and the planting remains immature. It is now a joint venture between Castle Howard and Kew Gardens and is managed by a charity called the Castle Howard Arboretum Trust, which was established in 1997. It was opened to the public for the first time in 1999. As of 2005 a new visitor centre is under construction.