Overview

There are many physical elements that obviously mean it will never be fully accessible, but they have made every effort to improve accessibility as much as possible. And a fab day out.

Transport & Parking

There were a reasonable number of accessible spaces, 8 or 9 I think and parking for blue badge holders was free. We arrived pretty promptly after opening time and had no problem parking at all, but apparently it was an unusually quiet day. It was a short walk to the ticket office.

Access

There is a cobbled court yard as you enter the palace, which was difficult, but inside there are slightly more even fag stones. You are given an audio guide and I was shown on a map a wheelchair accessible route. There was a lift and ramps where needed. A couple of wings (and an additional few rooms) were entirely inaccessible to wheelchair users and the main pathway in the gardens is gravelled. There were some videos, which didn't have subtitles. Although there are some seats that could be used in some rooms and plenty of benches in the garden, you would have to walk a while to reach them.

Toilets

It was relatively easy to find and was in very good condition and really clean. It was possibly a little narrow for wider chairs, but generally very good.

Staff

The staff were extremely helpful and friendly.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

I would definitely visit again, it was excellent. It is very large, though and required a good deal of walking (or wheeling, in my case!). I would definitely suggest subtitling the videos. But other than that, I think they did a very good job of making the majority of the building accessible.