EXPERIENCES

Regal retreats as seen on the screen

From stately Georgian homes to royal residences and sprawling fairy-tale country estates, Dream Escape finds the best hotels, cottages and gatehouses to transport any film-lover to the set of a Jane Austen adaptation or a scene of Bridgerton Regency stays, louche histories and Georgian manor houses in the south and south west England 

The Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath

The grand honey-coloured Georgian architecture of Bath’s Royal Crescent, once 30 glorious 18th-century townhouses, has become a go-to for period filming.

At the centre of the semicircle is The Royal Crescent Hotel, a Grade l Listed building that honours its classic design, while adding its own playful take, as historic art sits alongside bold modern wallpaper and bright pops of colour.

The exterior is used in all three series of the Netflix hit Bridgerton as a backdrop for promenading couples, carriages whisking guests to balls, and even Viscount Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma galloping on horseback, so you’ll no doubt feel like an extra in the show just by stepping outside.

Cliveden House, Berkshire

After finding itself at the heart of the 1960s affair between Secretary of State for War John Profumo and the much younger Christine Keeler, Cliveden House became infamous.

Aside from its notorious past, this incredibly striking 17th-century Grade I listed hotel on the western fringes of London is so grand that it replicated the lavish 17th-century Palace at Versailles in the 2015 film A Little Chaos. Starring Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman, the film portrays an unlikely romance when King Louis XIV’s chief landscape architect hires a woman to create a magnificent outdoor ballroom garden.

The outdoor ballroom may not exist, but there are 400 acres of grounds, including the famous outdoor swimming pool, plus private boats for blissful rowing along the River Thames. For real insight into its history and what it’s like to have lived here, Dream Escape can arrange an exclusive tour and tea with Lady Emily Astor, who grew up at Cliveden.

Bowood House, Wiltshire

Bowood Estate is an elegant Georgian manor house with Capability Brown parkland, making it a Jane Austen–worthy setting. It was featured in the 2019 TV series Sanditon, based on an unfinished manuscript by the author. So popular is it that a cottage on the estate was also used in the Downton Abbey film that year, and parts of it were featured in the TV adaptation of Winston Graham’s Poldark a few years earlier. 

Guests bed down at the Bowood Hotel, which has a spa and a golf course, all just a 20-minute walk from Bowood House. Owner Lady Lansdowne has designed sophisticated, contemporary rooms with heritage colours that reflect the estate. Royal rooms, Jane Austen-inspired homes and War poet residences in the Midlands and north of England

Cavendish Hotel at Baslow, on Chatsworth Estate, Peak District

The 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s much-loved romance novel, Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley, used one of the UK’s best country estates, the majestic Chatsworth House. It’s the home of heartthrob Mr Darcy, which seemed the only choice considering Austen is thought to have based Pemberley on Chatsworth, after spending time in Bakewell. 

After visiting the house, including the hundreds of acres of garden and natural parkland, check into The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow, which is part of the estate. It was recently redesigned by renowned interior designer Nicola Harding, who has created a contemporary rural escape with four-poster beds, pastel palettes and a sophisticated use of patterns.

Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire 

This historic castle and impressive stately home is utterly resplendent. With turrets and castellations, the vast honey-hued fortress oozes classic elegance, with near-impossibly high ceilings, voluminous draped curtains, and ornate gilded mirrors, making it easy to see why Belvoir Castle stands in for royal residences on the silver screen. 

Specifically, the aptly named Elizabeth Saloon was featured in the 2019 film Young Victoria (with Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria), where it served as Victoria’s drawing room.

It’s not its only on-screen appearance, though, as the castle was also used for the TV series The Crown, where the interiors stood in for parts of Windsor Castle.

Weston Park, Shropshire

The film Benediction tells the story of the prominent World War One poet Siegfried Sassoon and his postwar search for solace and salvation. 

Weston Park, an impressive 17th-century red-brick Palladian hotel (and its incredible 1,000 acres of Capability Brown parkland), is used in many scenes in the film. The library and its 3,000 books recreate The Reform Club in London (known as the home of progressive thinking and social change), where Sassoon and other poets gather in the film. The hotel’s phenomenal orangery (guests can enjoy afternoon tea here), with huge arched windows, was also used for a party scene,  and other parts of the house were used as Sassoon’s mother’s house too. Fairy-tale estates, Palladian mansions and celebrity guests in Ireland. 

Powerscourt, County Wicklow

Since Laurence Olivier first realised Powerscourt’s filming potential, using it for Henry V in 1944, it’s gone on to form the backdrop for a further 25 films and TV series. And no wonder, as nearby Wicklow is one of Ireland’s most sought-after filming locations, thanks to its rolling countryside, lush valleys with waterfalls, and unspoilt views over the Irish Sea. In 2007, it was the turn of the TV series The Tudors, which used Powerscourt’s grandeur to bring Henry VIII’s court and Renaissance dynasty to life.

 The hotel is centred on the Palladian-style main house, which extends into two wings and is surrounded by manicured gardens and a private lake. Rooms are generously spacious with marble bathrooms and regal striped wallpaper. The best rooms, the King Suites, have balcony views of Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Carton House, County Kildare

Surrounded by the beautiful County Kildare countryside, this magnificent 18th-century Georgian showstopper served as the family home of the four Lennox sisters in the 1999 TV series Aristocrats.

Carton House is one of the country’s grandest estates, which even hosted Queen Victoria; in the Chinese Boudoir, and it now honours her visit with a bust of the Queen herself. You’ll easily feel like royalty staying here too, as the hotel is full of baroque opulence, including The Morrison Room restaurant with its curved ceiling and Corinthian columns; and The Gold Room, covered in ornate gold plastering. Victorian Baronial homes, castles and 17th-Century mansions in Scotland .

Inveraray Castle, West Coast

Sitting right at the very top of Loch Fyne on Scotland’s wild west coast, Inveraray Castle is the real-life setting for 2021’s A Very British Scandal, based on the true lives of the current owner’s grandfather. The drama miniseries relays the story of the 11th Duke of Argyll, Ian Campbell, and his third wife, Margaret Whigham, and their highly publicised divorce in 1963. 

Though the castle is still a family home, Dream Escape can arrange private tours with the current Lady Argyll, who can divulge the Downton Abbey filming secrets, as it was used in the first film. In a previous interview with Dream Escape, Lady Argyll said they were sworn to secrecy when filming started, but revealed that when “Maggie Smith and Michelle Dockery [were] walking around our pretty small town, the cat was soon out of the bag”.  

Kinross House, Kinross

Imbued with romance and epic drama, the hugely successful TV series Outlander brought together two unlikely historic periods when former Second World War military nurse Claire Randall is transported back to 1743 and falls in love with a Highland warrior.

Much of the story is filmed at 17th-century Kinross House, using the elegant reception hall, the garden room, the gentlemen’s drawing room and the double-height baronial dining hall. Dream Escape can help arrange the hire of the estate’s main house, which has 14 rooms, as well as the additional coach house, which has another 10 rooms featuring four-poster beds, period furniture, and huge bathrooms with roll-top baths.

Ardverikie, The Highlands 

This baronial Highland sporting estate on the banks of Loch Laggan was used as Balmoral in the 1997 film Mrs Brown. It starred Judi Dench and Billy Connolly and depicted the story of a recently widowed Queen Victoria and her relationship with one of her late husband’s servants, John Brown. While the tryst has never quite been proven, it’s true that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert did actually spend three weeks at Ardverikie in the summer of 1847. Ardverikie also stood in as Balmoral in many episodes of The Crown, and was the home of the 2000 TV series Monarch of the Glen, starring Richard Briers. Stay at the estate’s Gatelodge, a turreted scaled-down version of the main house with a spiral staircase. 

IMAGE CREDITS: Getty Images / iStock Photos / Anna Bachelor / Barry Murphy Photography / Scott Merrylees / Neil Hoyle Photography

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