Highclere Castle | Downton Abbey

Last weekend was another Bank Holiday weekend (yay) and so the group of us decided to drive about 2h into Hampshire to visit Highclere Castle. This castle has been made very famous thanks to the hugely popular TV series Downton Abbey and some of us have been wanting to visit since last summer. However they are only open to the public from Sundays to Wednesdays for limited periods of time so it has been pretty difficult to schedule a day trip. We were worried that we would arrive 2h later to no tickets, and so being the typical kiasu Singaporeans, JX suggested arriving at our place at 720am! He planned for us to arrive 9ish to get the tickets. (Advance tickets always seem to be sold out per their website). Turned out that the Uber cab for Lawrence and WL was late and so the bunch of them arrive at ours close to 8am. We took a quick breakfast break at the MacDonalds along the motorway - fuel to start the day.

Arrived!

The drive there along the south circular of the M25 was pretty smooth and within 2h we were in Hampshire and in the village of Highclere. The Kims arrived first - I choose to say hubby Ong is a safer driver ;) but it was fine, they got tickets for us (GBP 15 each) and soon we were in the queue, in high anticipation.

Excited to be welcomed to the world of Downton Abbey

I only watched the last season of Downton Abbey, and K watched more seasons than me so we had a pretty good idea of places and scenes filmed in the house, such as the well manicured lawn surrounding the house, that road which leads to the front of the house, etc. We were not allowed any pictures in the house so unfortunately I am unable to share any here. This is still a functioning castle in the sense that the current owners live in it - which explains why it is only opened for limited periods of time. I find it fascinating that people still live in functioning castles in today's day and age. We walked around the house together with other visitors in an orderly queue. In the main rooms which were used in Downton Abbey, they had a short description of the room, and a poster depicting a particular scene in that particular room. To be fair, it was smaller than what we expected and we did the house tour between 30-40min. Weather wasn't too sunny that morning and so it was a bit chilly when the wind blew. We soon found ourselves out in their well manicured lawn and decided to walk around their garden (there is a section called the "Secret Garden"). Wait, not before we grab a drink in the tea room.

Into the Secret Garden

Admiring the immaculate grass

Wild buttercups

Dandelions

The guys discussing the value of the castle. Typical guy talk!

Enough of the greens, here are some vibrant coloured flowers that greeted us too. Ahh.. I want these for our garden... :)

Hues of orange, pink, yellow and green

We drove to a village pub 10min away for a Sunday roast lunch. By that time the sun was out and so being ushered into their garden for an outdoor seating didn't seem a bad idea. It was pretty nice.

And time for lunch!

I have to admit we were probably the most indecisive group that afternoon. We finished lunch about 3pm and a few of us agreed we should explore the area a bit more, rather than drive back to London immediately. However, nobody had any idea where to go. We all got a bit lost and distracted sitting at this table - the Kims sauntered off into the pub with the intention to ask the waitresses for tips on where to go. Hubby Ong was so satisfied after a meal that he had his head down on the table and promptly fell asleep! The rest of the guys were also nodding off. The sun was shining on us and to be fair I started to feel drowsy myself! The situation was such as this for a long time when finally someone said there is a village nearby and also a local version of Stonehenge. Ok guys, let's go.. stop snoozing!

Lawrence checked the map and saw that the town of Marlborough was not too far from us and suggested having a look at Marlborough College, a private school which Kate Middleton attended. And after that we would drive to Avebury Stone Circle which is about 10min away from Marlborough town centre.