My Visit to Downton Abbey

I love costume dramas and I love Masterpiece on PBS, so it's no surprise that I also love Downton Abbey, currently showing on Sunday nights.  What was a surprise was my first glimpse of the exterior of Downton Abbey during season one.

"That looks like Highclere," I said.  There was some general murmuring from the husband, sort of a "yes, dear, whatever you say" kind of thing.  But, sure enough, the series is partially filmed on the grounds of Highclere Castle outside London.

Here we are in 2007 walking toward the house.  We don't look much like the Crawleys/Granthams of Downton Abbey, do we?  Sorry about the quality of this photo.  It was taken with an early, not-very-good digital camera.  Can't find the original file either, so this is a scan of a bad print!

Highclere Castle was our first stop on a trip to England in 2007.  We were in our rental car on our way to Stonehenge when we stumbled upon a sign pointing us to Highclere.  We had never heard of it, but we had no timetable, so why not?  We didn't go in, but we wandered the grounds before continuing on our way.

Sheep on the grounds of the Highclere estate.

It was a lovely first stop on a wonderful journey that took us as far north as Inverness, Scotland.  Seeing Highclere Castle masquerading as Downton Abbey on Sunday nights brings back the memory of that trip.  I understand a third season is in the works.  I'll be watching!




Linking today to Mercantile Muse.