The Gardens and Skelf Island Adventure Playground are open daily, from 10am (9am for Friends of Castle Howard) with last admission at 4pm.
The House is currently closed due to a large scale filming project. It will re-open for our Christmas event from 13th November 2021. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your ongoing patience and support.
Pre-booking online is essential.
Our team will be managing the capacity of the adventure playground area at busy times. This may mean that you will be asked to queue or limit the time you spend on the playground to 2 hours subject to demand. Thank you for your ongoing cooperation. The Coffee Shop is open daily 9am - 5pm.
The Boathouse Café is open from 10am - 3pm (Mon-Fri) and from 10am - 4pm on weekends, both offering a grab-and-go takeaway offer.
The Courtyard Cafe is open daily from 10am - 5pm
The Castle Howard Farm Shop and Garden Centre are open daily from 10am - 5pm with social distancing measures in place.
We are a 'cashless site', so please be prepared to pay by card/phone.
The Courtyard and boathouse toilets are open with accessible toilets, and the baby changing facilities. There are additional hand hand sanitiser stations in and around the House and Gardens Please note that the Kelly Car land train will not be operating until further notice.
We have confirmed a filming contract that will take place at Castle Howard, which will mean a period of closure of the visitor attraction. We hope you will understand that the decision to take on the filming project has not been taken lightly and we have considered options very carefully. It is never our preference to close the House, however in this particular year, post pandemic, like many other visitor attractions we have suffered a substantial loss of income. Whilst we have been fortunate to receive Cultural Recovery funding for specific projects, we still have an ongoing conservation deficit challenge to address, and the essential income that filming provides goes directly into the restoration of our historic buildings and landscape. The filming itself will take place between 9th September and 9th October and for this period the House and Gardens will close entirely to the public. The House itself will close for a further period in order for the set up and de-rig of the project, from 16th August, but the Gardens, Grounds and Adventure Playground will remain open for the filming set up and strike period. So, if you are wishing to see the House this season, please do book in before 16th August. The Courtyard outlets and Garden Centre, as well as the wider Estate walks will remain open throughout the summer. Our planned outdoor events such as the Proms and concerts and Halloween will all go ahead and we will be re-opening the House for Christmas in Narnia on Saturday 13th November 2021.
Castle Howard regrets to say that following discussions with Historic Houses, and given the exceptional current circumstances, it has not proved possible to continue the membership access scheme for the gardens and house.
Government COVID 19 guidance states that all attractions must keep a record for 21 days of who is on site. This is in case it is needed for NHS Track and Trace purposes. This record will be held confidentially then securely disposed of. We are committed to keeping your personal information secure. We will never use it for any other purpose without your permission or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.
Please click on the links below if you would like to read our COVID-19 Risk Assessment or Visitor Code of Conduct
Visitor Code of Conduct
COVID-19 Risk Assessment