Highclere Castle is a grand Jacobethan mansion set amid Hampshire’s rolling parkland and the ancestral seat of the Earls of Carnarvon. The Gallery and surrounding state rooms embody the house’s ceremonial heart, where gilded woodwork, imposing portraits, and marble floors create a timeless sense of grandeur. Famously serving as Downton Abbey on screen, the castle’s interiors and expansive grounds have hosted numerous formal occasions, garden fêtes, and cinematic moments that exude aristocratic refinement. A visit here offers a doorway into living history, where hospitality and storytelling mingle and every corridor seems to echo with memories of the past.

Highclere Castle stands in for Downton Abbey, the Crawley family’s stately home. Visitors can tour the state rooms, drawing rooms, library and grounds.

Highclere Castle is one of Britain's most enduring symbols of aristocratic life, celebrated for its role as the fictional Downton Abbey and its storied history as the Carnarvon family seat. The Breakfast Room offers a glimpse into the private rituals that accompanied grand estates, with warm wood paneling, fine fabrics, and daylight pouring in to illuminate intimate conversations. Set in the Hampshire countryside, the house and its grounds blend centuries of tradition with expansive vistas that have hosted both royal pageantry and modern cinema. The atmosphere balances majestic etiquette with a lived-in elegance, inviting visitors to feel the cadence of a bygone era while sensing the work of a living heritage site behind every door.