Castle Howard

Because it was a three day weekend with the Bank Holiday on Monday we thought we would do a long overnight trip up in Yorkshire. We learned of Castle Howard from the brochures we got at Leeds Castle and having a 2-for-1 voucher we thought we would check it out. And what a surprise we got. This house and grounds are amazing. Home of the Howard Family, Earls of Carlisle, this elaborate house is full beautiful treasures and well preserved antiques. I thought the china cabinet was quite remarkable and it was only the first thing we got to see.

Next we moved into some of the bedroom quarters and eventhough things were very old they seemed so beautiful and warm. I loved this canopy bed. In this room there was the Lady Carlisle's traveling vanity, full of her favorite personal items that was all crafted in wood, but folded up nicely to travel with her.

This dresser was from either the 17th or 18th century, but it looks brand new. Pay careful attention to the glass figurines on the dresser though. These were often filled with guests favorite drink so that they could pour themselves a little night cap before going to bed.

There were a ton of marble statues throughout the house and this was the entry into a long hallway filled with them. They were so beautiful and Addison kept introducing herself to them all. One thing Kevin and I noticed is that you can see where they have repaired all the times that the heads have fallen off all the statue

I caught Addison imitating the little devil knob on this dresser. What a funny little girl!


This was a lot down in the main hall of the house. Marble statues and floors with an unbelievable domed ceiling above with paintings all over the place. Part of the house actually sustained a fire several years back and they worked to restore most of the paintings but now there are signs all over the place asking you not to touch the walls in order to preserve what is left. It's also kind of funny but in most of the houses we go to the family has current pictures of the family set up all over and no exception here. It's weird to think that this really is a home that people live in day to day...

















There was an exhibition called "Sing a Song of Sixpence" which highlights illustrated childrens' books..lots of really, really old books.
















This looked to be a music room. The piano in the far end of the room and loads of paintings.

This was a gift given to the Earl...a wine chest. It would be filled with ice and then several bottles of wine and/champagne would be stuck into it. It was decorated with intricate metal carvings of all the shields of the local towns in the area. It was really beautiful.


Quite a dining room...

Addison in the long Great Hall. While checking out all the paintings, books and other bits and bobs in this room, we noticed a couple with what we assumed was a wedding planner. How amazing would it be to be able to have your wedding reception in this room...I'm sure that costs a pretty penny.






The kids had a fun time running around the outside of the house. Our stroller sprung a leak (again) so we had to load Harrison up in the backpack carrier for the whole day. He's getting to be a pretty heavy little guy so it was nice to get him off Kevin's back for a while and let the little guy stretch his legs. Addison and Kevin played hide and seek with the statues and hedges in the courtyard.

















What a cutie...she's got a great smile! We took a nice walk up the hill from the house and through the woods and then came back down a hill to see this beautiful view of the garden's.
















The house is beautiful and very ornate...kind of reminded me of buildings we saw in Paris.


After Kevin and I got to see what we wanted to see, we let Addison have some fun as well. The estate has a huge adventure playground that she had a complete blast playing at. There was actually one huge slide that scared even me as I was getting ready to go down with her, but she has no fear. Her and Kevin had a really great time swinging in this huge disc swing together.



Of course, we spoil our children horribly or we just give in way to easy because ice cream seems to be on the order every afternoon while on holiday. Addison ordered up some Yorkshire Dales raspberry ice cream for her and Harry to share.

It was a really great adventure and now it was time to find our B&B in Harrogate.