Overview

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.

Transport & Parking

There is plenty of accessible parking, very close to the entrance area. The markings around bays are so faded they are barely visible but provided everyone parks sensibly, it's fine. The car park is a little potholed so care is needed when wheeling across it.

Access

There is level entry from the car park, through the courtyard, ticket office and into the gardens. To access the house, wheelchair users need to go through the gift shop, which is a huge marquee at Christmas. There was plenty of space though and I had no problems getting in. The huge staircase up to the rooms has a platform stairlift that you just wheel onto and it takes you up. It goes extremely slowly though, so allow plenty of time. If there is more than one wheelchair user, you can be waiting ages! At least they have thought about it though. The Narnia experience is all on one level and there was plenty of room to move around. The gardens are largely accessible, though varied surfaces: compacted gravel, loose gravel, grass, etc. We've been before and brought my mountain trike, which got me pretty much everywhere but this time, we took my normal chair with freewheel and just avoided going down to the lake. If we had gone down though, there is a land train with ramps to the first carriage, which we could have come back in.

Toilets

There are toilets in the courtyard but is quite narrow getting in and out and not much room inside. The toilets behind the giftshop were more spacious. In summer, they also had some portacabins dotted around. They could with RADAR locking them though, to help keep them clean.

Staff

Most of the staff were extremely polite, friendly and helpful. My only negative is that the lady on the ticket desk thought assistance dogs wouldn't be allowed in the house, even though I told her that their website said otherwise. She went to check with a manager and confirmed that assistance dogs are allowed. It would be better if all staff knew this sort of thing to avoid making people feel uncomfortable.

Photos