An Easter Weekend Trip to Castle Howard, Yorkshire

Give me a stately home with pretty gardens, a nice cafe and a tempting gift shop and I am, quite literally in my element.

Add in a Bridgerton connection and I am ecstatic.

We spent the Easter weekend in Yorkshire and our holiday cottage was on the Castle Howard estate.  Still privately owned by the Howard family the house has been classed as one of the great palaces of Europe for over 300 years.  Only once I’d booked it, did I learn that Castle Howard was used as Lord Hasting’s country palace in Series 1 of Bridgerton!  And Coneysthorpe where our cottage was, also appears as the local village where Lady Daphne insults the villagers by not choosing the winning pig (if you have not watched, and have no interest in Bridgerton I apologise for the extra detail but if you haven’t watched it, the question is why not?!)

The initial purpose of our holiday was a trip into York so our smallest little, who is the world’s biggest steam train enthusiast could visit the National Railway Museum.  He’s been asking if we can go for the past few years and all through lockdown we promised that as soon as we were allowed to travel about again we would go and we thought Easter was the perfect opportunity.  (Seeing the sheer joy on his face as he spotted the Mallard will be one of my favourite memories forever!)    I’d been struggling to find somewhere suitable for all of us plus our in-laws to stay when I came across a holiday cottage on the Castle Howard estate.  York is about a half hour drive away and the estate was perfect. 

For the littles there was the play park, infinite space to run around and a little tractor train to take you about for tired legs.  We were blessed with gorgeous sunny weather so we took advantage of all the different cafes for brunch, lunch and ice cream!  I got my walled gardens fix and also the house tour is beautiful.  I am a massive fan of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones and until we were at the cottage reading about the house, I had no idea that they were friends with the Howard family and when the chapel was redecorated in the 1870 they were drafted in to re-design it.  It is utterly heavenly (no pun intended) and I took a million photos.  So many delicious details that made it a feast for the eyes.  It’s also where i managed to pick up in the shop, a gorgeous new doorstop from a Yorkshire maker F&B Crafts.  When i was younger and my parents would take me round stately homes we could never leave without a branded pencil and a box of fudge!  Now for me, its all about the homewares!  The estate also boasts a fab deli and store where we stocked up for the weekend and my eldest little declared the sausage roll, ‘the best she’s ever had’.

It was an absolute treat of a weekend and I’m only disappointed we hadn’t booked a longer stay.