A Summer Day in Castle Howard

A visit to Castle Howard in Yorkshire on what seemed like the last sunny day this year, felt like a suitable way to close summer season.
A grand historic entrance on the road leading to the estate looked promising.

We enter through 18th century courtyard (now estate café and shopping area) and follow a long pathway by the walled garden leading to the house, which overlooks the main feature of the estate – an impressive fountain and groomed formal gardens surrounded by vast areas of green fields.

The interior of the house, as expected, is richly decorated with a wealth of artwork, antique furniture, interior design elements and frescos. For some it might feel like a museum, but Howard family photographs dotted here and there remind the visitor that it is a place one family calls home.

And they seem a generous family too, with a lot of roaming space for visitors in the woodland, by the lakeside, children’s playing area – everything seems easily accessible, we even saw families playing ball games on the grounds.

A walk to the Temple of the Four Winds is a must for any visitor – the stunning landscape around shows the designer’s skill in blurring the lines between the man-made and naturally formed.

The walled garden with a variety of roses and other flowers still in bloom, as well as little vegetable gardens is a nice change to the eye after mainly green and grey shades of the whole estate. The garden walls seem to help to hold on to the last summer sunrays for a bit longer, making it a warmer place to sit after a long walk.

At the end of the summer the estate grounds are mainly green with seemingly no other colours in the mix, but I would like to come back here in autumn, when the dramatic yellows and reds set in….