Tag: trail-film-tv

From the Gothic towers of Highclere Castle to the honey-stone lanes of Bampton, the world of Downton Abbey is real, a short journey west of London, and still beautifully easy to step into.

Why Follow the Downton Trail?

Six series, five Christmas specials and three feature films later, Downton Abbey remains one of the most loved period dramas ever made. The story ended on the big screen with Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, directed by Simon Curtis from Julian Fellowes’ screenplay, which premiered in London and New York on 8 September 2025 and reached cinemas on 12 September 2025. It followed Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).

What makes this trail so rewarding is that the key places are not studio sets. Highclere Castle is a working family home, Bampton is a living Oxfordshire village, and many of the supporting houses are historic estates you can visit, admire from the street or even stay near.

Highclere Castle: The Real Downton Abbey

Highclere Castle stands in rolling parkland west of London, close to the M4 and the market town of Newbury, and has long been the seat of the Earls of Carnarvon. Today it is the home of the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, which is exactly why it feels so alive: you walk through rooms that are lived in, not museum pieces. Fans will instantly recognise the Saloon, the library and the great staircase, and the castle appears in all three films as well as the series.

The Egyptian Exhibition and the Tutankhamun story

Highclere has a second, entirely true story that rivals any plot twist. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon financed Howard Carter’s excavations in Egypt, and in 1922 they discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. Down the old servants’ stairs in the castle cellars, the Egyptian Exhibition tells the story of the 5th Earl’s work and the discovery, with replicas from the tomb alongside antiquities from the family’s collection. For background reading, the Countess of Carnarvon’s own book, Egypt at Highclere, makes a lovely companion.

Opening times and tickets

Highclere opens to the public only on limited dates, and popular days sell out, so plan this first and build the rest of the trip around it. The official ticket shop currently lists:

• Spring Public Opening: selected dates from March to June 2027.
• Summer Public Opening: Sunday 11 July to Thursday 2 September 2027, closed to the public every Friday and Saturday.
• Guided and seasonal tours: including winter guided tours in January 2027, Downton Abbey and Tutankhamun guided tours in February 2027 and summertime guided tours in June and July 2027, alongside special events such as Christmas tours.

On public opening days you choose a timed entry slot for the castle (morning, midday or afternoon), with self-guided rooms and guides on hand to answer questions. The gardens, tearooms and gift shop stay open through the day. Tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable.

Getting there

The nearest station is Newbury, served by trains from London Paddington, and the castle is about 15 minutes away by taxi. Taxis do not wait outside the station, so book your return in advance. Drivers should follow the brown signs from the A34 rather than relying on sat nav close to the castle.

Bampton: The Village of Downton

About 20 miles west of Oxford, on the edge of the Cotswolds, Bampton played the village of Downton throughout the series and returned for the films. The main filming locations cluster around the church, so it is easy to explore on foot in an hour or two.

• St Mary’s Church: the setting for Downton’s weddings, christenings and funerals, including Mary and Matthew’s wedding and Edith’s ill-fated wedding day. It is generally open to visitors.
• Bampton Library (Downton Cottage Hospital): the seventeenth-century former grammar school that served as Dr Clarkson’s hospital. It is home to the Bampton Library and Community Archive, and fans’ donations helped with its restoration. Look out for the inexpensive “Downton Abbey Mile” map sold here.
• Churchgate House: the former vicarage overlooking Church Green played Isobel Crawley’s house. It is private and behind a high wall, so you only glimpse the upper storeys.
• The Grantham Arms: a private house opposite the church, dressed as the village pub for filming.

Please remember that much of Bampton is private homes. Parking is free but limited, so arrive early on summer weekends, when tour coaches visit.

More Downton in Oxfordshire

Nearby, Cogges Manor Farm in Witney played Yew Tree Farm, home of the Drewe family, and is open to visitors. In Swinbrook, the riverside Swan Inn appeared in series two as the inn where Lady Sybil and Branson stopped on their planned elopement.

Other Downton Locations Worth Seeking Out

Basildon Park, Berkshire

This Palladian National Trust mansion supplied the interiors of Grantham House, the family’s London home, in the films, and its reception rooms feature heavily in The Grand Finale. It is a natural add-on to a Highclere day; check house opening dates with the National Trust.

West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire

Still home to the Dashwood family, this Italianate house provided interiors for Lady Rosamund’s London house, and you may recognise its Blue Drawing Room. The house opens only in summer, partly by guided tour, so check dates before travelling.

Byfleet Manor, Surrey

The exterior of the Dowager Countess’s Dower House was filmed at this Grade II* listed manor. It is a private home, so treat it as a photo stop rather than a visit.

London: Lancaster House, Bridgewater House and more

Lancaster House stood in for Buckingham Palace in the 2013 Christmas special, when Lady Rose was presented at court, while Bridgewater House played the exterior of Grantham House. Neither is open for public tours, but both can be admired from outside near Green Park.

Further afield: Alnwick and Inveraray

In Northumberland, Alnwick Castle played Brancaster Castle in the 2014 and 2015 Christmas specials, and its State Rooms are open seasonally. In Argyll, Inveraray Castle became Duneagle Castle for the 2012 Christmas special, when the family travelled to the Highlands; it is open from spring to autumn. Both reward a longer journey north, and Inveraray pairs beautifully with our guide to castle stays in Scotland.

Where to Stay: Luxury near Highclere and the Cotswolds

Heckfield Place, Hampshire

About an hour from London, Heckfield Place is one of England’s most serene country house hotels, set on an estate with its own organic Home Farm and biodynamic market garden. Dining at Marle, which holds a Green Michelin Star, and the open-fire Hearth is led by chef Eleanor Henson, and the Bothy spa has a lovely indoor pool. It makes a polished base for Highclere and Basildon Park.

The Vineyard, Stockcross

Just outside Newbury and very close to Highclere, The Vineyard is famous for one of England’s great wine collections. It is currently closed for refurbishment and is scheduled to reopen on 1 February 2027, with refreshed rooms and its Seyval restaurant, and a spa to follow later in 2027. Check it has reopened before you book.

Estelle Manor, Oxfordshire

For the Bampton side of the trip, Estelle Manor is a glamorous Grade II listed house on a large estate near Eynsham, part country house hotel and part members’ club, with four restaurants, a Roman-inspired spa and an outdoor pool. Hotel guests enjoy the estate’s facilities.

The Swan Inn, Swinbrook

For something smaller and full of Downton charm, The Swan Inn sits on the banks of the Windrush near Burford, with rooms in its stables and a riverside cottage. It is the very inn where Sybil and Branson paused on their elopement.

If you would like to extend into the hills, see our pick of 10 boutique hotels in the Cotswolds.

Downton Tours from London

If you would rather not drive, guided day trips from London combine Highclere with Bampton, often with time in Oxford too. Several run only on Highclere’s public opening dates and include castle entry, which can be the simplest way to secure a ticket. We like the Downton Abbey, Oxford and Highclere Castle tour from London for first-timers, while a private Highclere and Downton day tour gives you your own pace and a door-to-door car.

A Two-Day Downton Itinerary from London

Day 1: London to Highclere

Take a morning train from Paddington to Newbury and a pre-booked taxi to Highclere for your timed entry. Explore the State Rooms, then head down to the Egyptian Exhibition before tea and a wander in the gardens. If time and opening dates allow, add Basildon Park on the way. Check in at Heckfield Place or The Vineyard for a long, unhurried dinner.

Day 2: Bampton and the Cotswolds edge

Drive north to Bampton in the morning, before the tour coaches arrive. Pick up the Downton map at the library, visit St Mary’s Church and stroll past Churchgate House. Continue to Cogges Manor Farm in Witney, then lunch beside the river at the Swan Inn in Swinbrook. Either return to London in the evening or stay a final night at Estelle Manor.

FAQs

Can you visit Highclere Castle all year?

No. Highclere is a family home and opens on limited dates, mainly a spring opening from March to June and a summer opening in July and August, plus special guided tours at other times. In 2027 the summer opening runs from 11 July to 2 September, closed Fridays and Saturdays.

Where is the Downton village filmed?

In Bampton, Oxfordshire, about 20 miles west of Oxford. The church, the library (Downton Cottage Hospital) and Churchgate House are the key sights.

Can you do Highclere and Bampton in one day from London?

Yes, many guided day tours combine both, but it makes for a long day. Two days allows time for the Egyptian Exhibition, afternoon tea and a night in a beautiful country house.

What was the last Downton Abbey film?

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, released in September 2025, which brought the Crawley story to a close.

Honey-coloured crescents, colonnaded streets and candlelit ballrooms: Bath is where Bridgerton‘s Regency London comes to life, and where the real Regency still waits around every corner.

Why Bath Is Bridgerton’s Real Home

Netflix’s Bridgerton is set in Mayfair, but much of its glittering London was filmed a hundred miles west, in Bath. It is easy to see why. The city was built for exactly the society the show portrays: a Georgian resort where the fashionable came to take the waters, dance at the Assembly Rooms and be seen promenading along elegant streets. So much of that architecture survives intact that UNESCO inscribed the entire city as a World Heritage Site in 1987, and in 2021 Bath was inscribed a second time as one of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.

For fans, that means a double pleasure: stand where the Featheringtons’ carriage pulled up, then sip tea in the Pump Room that Jane Austen knew. With four seasons now on Netflix, and Bath back on screen once more, there has never been a better moment to visit.

Bridgerton Filming Locations in Bath

No. 1 Royal Crescent: the Featherington house

The front door and façade of No. 1 Royal Crescent play the Featheringtons’ London townhouse. For the show, the production added stone lions, pediments and rosettes to suggest the family’s showy taste, and digital effects placed the house on one side of a grand square facing the Bridgertons. The house was used again in season three. Today No. 1 is a museum run by Bath Preservation Trust, furnished as a fashionable Georgian home, with the servants’ quarters below stairs. It offers Bridgerton-themed tours showing how the house was used during filming.

The Holburne Museum: Lady Danbury’s house

At the end of Great Pulteney Street, the grand façade of the Holburne Museum is the exterior of Lady Danbury’s house, and it reprises the role in season four. Behind it is one of Bath’s finest small galleries, beside Sydney Gardens.

Abbey Green: the modiste

Tucked beside Bath Abbey, the leafy little square of Abbey Green starred in seasons one and two. The Abbey Deli became the Modiste, Madame Delacroix’s dress shop, while another corner of the square stood in for Covent Garden.

The Assembly Rooms and Guildhall: the ballrooms

The Tea Room and Ball Room of the Bath Assembly Rooms provided backdrops for ball scenes, as did the Banqueting Room of the Guildhall. The Assembly Rooms are cared for by the National Trust and are being transformed into a new Georgian visitor experience due to open in 2027. In the meantime, access is by pre-booked guided tour of the principal rooms, so check the National Trust website before you go.

The streets: Bath Street, Trim Street, Beauford Square and Edward Street

Much of the show’s street life was filmed on Bath’s cobbles. The colonnades of Bath Street, the quiet corners of Trim Street and Beauford Square, and, from season three, Edward Street off Great Pulteney Street, where crews filmed carriages, horses and costumed extras in January 2023. Many of those Edward Street scenes were shot right outside the Dukes hotel.

To hear the behind-the-scenes stories as you go, we recommend a guided Bridgerton walking tour of Bath, which links the main sites in a couple of hours.

The Real Regency City

The Royal Crescent and the Circus

The Royal Crescent, a sweeping arc of 30 houses designed by John Wood the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, is the city’s showpiece. A short walk away is the Circus, designed by his father, John Wood the Elder. Work began in 1754, and when the elder Wood died within months of the first stone being laid, his son completed it to his design.

Pulteney Bridge

Designed by Robert Adam and completed in 1774, Pulteney Bridge is one of only a handful of bridges in the world lined with shops along its full span on both sides.

The Roman Baths and the Pump Room

The Roman Baths are the reason Bath exists, and no visit is complete without them. Next door, the elegant Pump Room, completed in the 1790s, was the social heart of Regency Bath, where visitors gathered to drink the waters and exchange gossip. Today it is a restaurant run by Searcys, serving morning coffee and afternoon tea to live music. Pre-book a Roman Baths entry ticket or guided visit to skip the queue, then book a table in the Pump Room for afterwards.

Jane Austen’s Bath

Jane Austen lived in Bath in the early 1800s and set parts of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion here. The Jane Austen Centre at 40 Gay Street, just below the Circus, tells her story and has a Regency Tea Room upstairs. Every September the city hosts the Jane Austen Festival, ten days of talks, dances and balls opening with the Grand Regency Costumed Promenade through the streets. It usually runs in mid-September; check the official festival website for dates.

For reading on the train, we love a beautiful clothbound edition of Persuasion, Austen’s most Bath-soaked novel.

Prior Park Landscape Garden

On the hillside south of the city, Prior Park is an eighteenth-century landscape garden created by Ralph Allen, with input from the poet Alexander Pope and, possibly, Capability Brown. Now cared for by the National Trust, it has one of only four Palladian bridges of its design left in the world, with sweeping views back over the city. It is not a Bridgerton location, but it is pure Regency romance.

Thermae Bath Spa

To take the waters as the Georgians did, but with a modern twist, head to Thermae Bath Spa. Its natural thermal water fills both the indoor Minerva Bath and an open-air rooftop pool with views across the city’s rooftops and towards the surrounding hills.

Bridgerton Beyond Bath

Several of the show’s grandest houses are within easy reach, ideal for a longer trip:

• Wilton House, near Salisbury: Used for interiors of Clyvedon, the Duke of Hastings’s estate, including the dining room, and for royal rooms. Roughly an hour’s drive from Bath.
• Badminton House, Gloucestershire: Used for some Clyvedon scenes in season one and as the Danbury estate in Queen Charlotte. A private estate with limited public access.
• Castle Howard, North Yorkshire: The exterior, entrance hall and grounds of Clyvedon Castle in season one, with the nearby village of Coneysthorpe as Clyvedon village.
• Ranger’s House and the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich: The wisteria-clad Bridgerton House and many London street scenes.

Bath also makes a natural base for the Cotswolds, where Bridgerton-style country houses and honey-stone villages abound. See our guide to the best boutique hotels in the Cotswolds if you plan to extend your stay.

Where to Stay in Bath

The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa

For the ultimate Bridgerton address, The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa occupies the centre of the crescent itself, a five-star hotel of 45 rooms with hidden gardens behind and a spa with an indoor pool.

The Gainsborough Bath Spa

In the heart of the old city, near the Roman Baths, The Gainsborough Bath Spa draws natural thermal water into its own Spa Village, with two thermal pools, saunas, a steam room and an ice alcove.

No.15 by GuestHouse, Great Pulteney Street

Now part of the GuestHouse group, No.15 Great Pulteney is a witty, art-filled Georgian townhouse hotel with a small spa, a short stroll from the Holburne Museum and Pulteney Bridge.

Dukes, Great Pulteney Street

Fans will love Dukes, a characterful boutique townhouse on the corner of Edward Street, where many of the season three street scenes were filmed right outside the door. Note that there is no lift.

Homewood Hotel & Spa, Freshford

For country-house calm, Homewood sits in gardens above the Avon Valley in Freshford, about 15 minutes by taxi from Bath Spa station. Expect a spa with an outdoor heated pool and hot tubs, and some rooms with private hot tubs of their own.

Practicalities

• Getting there: Direct trains run from London Paddington to Bath Spa, taking around an hour and a half. The station is a short walk from the Roman Baths and Abbey Green.
• Getting around: The compact centre is best explored on foot, though the climb to the Royal Crescent is steep.
• When to go: Spring and early summer bring long evenings; September brings the Jane Austen Festival. Book hotels well ahead for festival week.
• Booking ahead: No. 1 Royal Crescent tours, Assembly Rooms tours, Thermae Bath Spa and Pump Room afternoon tea can all sell out, so reserve in advance and check opening times before you go.

A Perfect Bridgerton Day in Bath

Morning

Begin at the Royal Crescent and tour No. 1 Royal Crescent, then stroll through the Circus to the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street. Continue to the Assembly Rooms if you have booked a guided tour.

Afternoon

Wander down to Abbey Green for the Modiste, explore the Roman Baths, then settle in for afternoon tea in the Pump Room. Cross Pulteney Bridge and walk the length of Great Pulteney Street, past Edward Street, to the Holburne Museum and Sydney Gardens.

Evening

Watch the sun set from the rooftop pool at Thermae Bath Spa, or retreat to your hotel’s thermal pools before dinner.

FAQs

Which house is the Featheringtons’ in Bath?

No. 1 Royal Crescent, at the eastern end of the Royal Crescent. Its exterior plays the Featherington townhouse, and it is now a museum you can visit, with Bridgerton-themed tours.

Is Lady Danbury’s house in Bath?

Yes. The façade of the Holburne Museum on Great Pulteney Street plays Lady Danbury’s house, including in season four.

When is the Jane Austen Festival?

It runs for ten days each September, opening with the Grand Regency Costumed Promenade. Check the official festival website for exact dates.