Highclere to Tintagel

This morning we visited Highclere castle, this was definetly on my bucket list and to be honest I felt I already knew it so well. Of course it is otherwise known as "Downton Abbey".

There has been a building on this site since 749AD, sometime during the 12-13th century a red brick Tudor mansion was built and then in 18th century the Tudor mansion was converted into a Georgian mansion and then in 1839, the reknowned architet George Barry ( he designed the parliament houses in London) transformed it into a mansion that would " impress the world" and it does, it is ornate but not too ornate.

Highclere is the home of the Earl and Countess of Carnavon, and there family has some great history . . .  

At the age of 19 Almina the illegitimate daughter of the banker Alfred de Rothschild married the 5th earl of Carnavon. She came with a huge dowry and had to learn how to run a British nobles family estate. Almina fulfilled her role well and became well loved in social circles, in her time she was to attend the funeral of Queen Victoria, the coronation of Edward VII and many other grand and royal events.

When the war broke out in 1912, Almina turned her palatial home into a hospital, she took the role of matron herself  and was reknowned for the provision of excellent care, especially in the Orthopaedic area.  

Almina' husband the 5th earl of Carnavon is well known as a keen Egyptologist and the financial backer of the excavations in the valley of the kings that ultimately led to the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb.   The basement of Highclere has an exhibition of some artefacts found by the 5th earl and some reproductions of some of the objects found in Tutankhamen 's tomb.

The current Earl's father was the racing manager for and a close personal friend of Queen Elizabeth II , the current earl is the queens godson.

   

We arrived early and did our gift shop shopping early , which was a good idea as there was a huge line up later in the day. We strolled around the castle and came back to the front and there was a huge line up to get in, we were a little worried thinking we would be waiting for hours . . . But the staff were extremely efficient at getting people through without overcrowding the house. It was very well done.

So if your curious about what it looks like inside then, you need to watch Downton Abbey.  There was no photography inside, which is pretty normal.  It truely looks just like you see in Downton and the areas we got to see that is not shown in Downton were beautiful, one room had gorgeous tapestries from Italy that are over 500 years old. They have never used this room for filming due to the concern that the tapestries may get damaged.

Sadly we farewelled Highclere just after midday and headed south to Cornwall.

Most of the time we travelled along the expressways, which proved to be entertaining at times, but once we turned off, we got to travel down lush country lanes and through many quaint little towns until we arrived at our destination 

Tintagel

Is situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, the village and it's castle are associated with the Arthurian legends. Tintagel castle was believed to be the birthplace of King Arthur.

Tintagel is a popular holiday spot and was swarming with people when we arrived

  

The building above is the village post office, this building is a grade 1 listed building and is said to be an excellent example of a 14th century stone house.

The village itself is really quite cute, with lists of shops, cafes and restaurants. I think mainly though I just fell in love with the green rolling hills and sheer cliffs and the sound of the sea, to me a perfect combination.

It's a beautiful place to be

Cheerio

Googy Girl