Castle Howard

We are silver members of Castle Howard and booked to visit for the first day of their 2021 Christmas experience. Each year has a different theme and this year, it's Narnia. The house and gardens are largely wheelchair accessible but there are some hilly sections outside and a variety of surfaces.

Set in beautiful countryside, with fantastic views. The trees in the Garden were all decorated. with fairy lights. Some of us took The Land Train down to main entrance of the Castle and some preferred to walk. You can hire a wheelchair free of charge, they also have seats you can carry around with you. The Disabled access is through the shop, but Staff are very willing and helpful, holding doors and pointing in the right direction.There is a Chair lift for access to The Rooms, (This can take 10mins so allow plenty of time) The House was beautifully decorated, they have a different theme each year, the theme this time is 'Christmas Masquerade' each room is decorated differently too. We were lucky to catch the Choir singing in the Long Gallery, this is always good for people living with dementia, we all joined in with the Carol singing. It is a tradition of ours to always have our photo taken in the Great Hall, beside the 25' Christmas Tree, with its 3000 baubles. There was a String Quartet playing there too, a lovely Christmas feeling. After looking around the Castle we headed for a cup of tea and mince pie before getting land train back to Car park.(it can get a bit cold waiting and whilst on land train, as it's open space and get a bit windy) There are plenty of disabled parking spaces, there is a chair lift in the house, disabled toilets on ground level and at the Court Yard Cafe

Most historical houses have limited access for wheelchair users so this must be taken into consideration as part of the review. Access within the house itself is fairly good however you do need to be in a manual wheelchair in order to see any of the house. This is because they have a wheelchair stair lift which I believe can't take electric chairs or scooters. I think they have manual chairs available to transfer into. Once up the stairs, most of the house is on one level. There is a small section which has no wheelchair access and they have a book with photos available. The house is a way from the parking however there is a small tractor pulled vehicle with wheelchair access to take you to it or down to the lake area. Staff were friendly and helpful.