--- title: Downton Abbey Season 6 Episode 6: Take a Real House Tour description: The open-house plot is strikingly similar to real life—and here's what you'd see on just such a tour canonical: https://time.com/4203463/house-tour-downton/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-08T13:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:39:48.158Z article:section: History og:title: Downton Abbey Season 6 Episode 6: Take a Real House Tour og:description: The open-house plot is strikingly similar to real life og:url: https://time.com/4203463/house-tour-downton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa07f1f15d1fbbaf/69887bb7524fc0fbc2df68e8/highclere.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Daily Life At Highclere Castle Home To Television Program Downton Abbey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Downton Abbey Season 6 Episode 6: Take a Real House Tour twitter:description: The open-house plot is strikingly similar to real life twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa07f1f15d1fbbaf/69887bb7524fc0fbc2df68e8/highclere.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Take a Tour of the Real _Downton Abbey_ House ## Video: The Real Downton Abbey: Highclere Castle [Watch (HLS stream): The Real Downton Abbey: Highclere Castle](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/urM3euyX.m3u8) (4:01)  _Published 2012-01-05. The Countess Carnarvon gives a tour of the fabulous Highclere Castle, her family home and the set of the Masterpiece Classic series Downton Abbey_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 8, 2016 1:00 PM UTC  The butler poses in the saloon at Highclere Castle on March 15, 2011 in Newbury, England. The butler poses in the saloon at Highclere Castle on March 15, 2011 in Newbury, England.Matthew Lloyd—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 8, 2016 1:00 PM UTC The prospect of opening up Downton Abbey to the public might shock the fictional Lord Grantham, even if ticket sales could help subsidize the house’s upkeep. In real life, however, the house at which the popular TV show is filmed does allow commoners to traipse through. As the house’s current resident, Lady Carnarvon, [recently told](http://time.com/4190411/highclere-castle-egypt/) LIFE Books, Highclere Castle has been open to the public since the 1980s, when an exhibition of Egyptian artifacts went on display. The home is currently open to visitors for a couple dozen days a year, and it’s even possible to book an overnight stay at the estate. In 2012, TIME visited the estate to [take a look](http://time.com/vault/issue/2012-01-16/page/54/) at what it’s like to live at the real Downton Abbey. And, as the article explained, the real reason for the tours is just the same as the one explained on the show: --- > “” --- Luckily for visitors, however, the real Lady Carnarvon proved a better tour guide than Cora Crawley: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4203463/house-tour-downton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4203463/house-tour-downton/"},"headline":"Take a Tour of the Real Downton Abbey House","datePublished":"2016-02-08T13:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:39:48.158Z","description":"The open-house plot is strikingly similar to real life","url":"https://time.com/4203463/house-tour-downton/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa07f1f15d1fbbaf/69887bb7524fc0fbc2df68e8/highclere.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa07f1f15d1fbbaf/69887bb7524fc0fbc2df68e8/highclere.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Daily Life At Highclere Castle Home To Television Program Downton Abbey","caption":"Daily Life At Highclere Castle Home To Television Program Downton Abbey","creditText":"Matthew Lloyd—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4203463/house-tour-downton/","name":"Take a Tour of the Real Downton Abbey House"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Real Downton Abbey: Highclere Castle","description":"The Countess Carnarvon gives a tour of the fabulous Highclere Castle, her family home and the set of the Masterpiece Classic series Downton Abbey","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/urM3euyX/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2012-01-05T20:00:49.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/urM3euyX.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4203463/house-tour-downton/","duration":"PT4M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4203463/house-tour-downton/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```