Looking for plans of Highclere Castle

August 1, 2016 10:54 AM

Where can I find detailed floor plans (and/or architectural drawings) of Highclere Castle (which plays Downton Abbey on TV)? I've already spent a fair amount of time on Google, but I've only found a few blurry bits and bobs. (I'd like to create a video game level closely based on the real castle.)

My ideal would be a matched set of plans for each floor, to scale. But such a thing doesn't seem to exist online, so I might have to resort to books. Anyone know where I might start?

Here's what I've been able to scrape up so far:

Basement: Downton Abbey version

Ground floor: real floor plan; Downton Abbey version; more detailed drawings (with measurements) of the real dining room, library, and music room

First floor (or second floor, in American parlance): Downton Abbey version

Real plan of an unknown level (possibly the second floor?), with illegible labels

Exploded view of the Downton Abbey version

Blurry architectural drawing of an unknown portion (I can't figure out which part of the building this depicts)

posted by escape from the potato planet to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Some interesting drawings of external views and design details here.

Basement, ground floor, and first floor plans here. (From some newspaper article that could be tracked down with little work probably; appears to be of the Downton Abbey version?)
posted by flug at 11:55 AM on August 1, 2016

Looks like the one ground floor plan (found here, for example) comes from The Victorian Country House by Mark Girouard (amazon, google books, rare bookstore). But it is unclear whether that book will have plans for more of the floors or not. Looks like you could order it used from Amazon for just a few bucks and find out . . .

Also, the Highclere Castle web site has a pretty nice overall site/grounds plan.
posted by flug at 12:17 PM on August 1, 2016

This rendering of the 2nd floor may be just a titch higher-resolution than the one you link. (BTW one trick is to use tineye.com to reverse search for images you have already found. Often you can find better quality versions of those images and also, often, interesting related images.)
posted by flug at 12:49 PM on August 1, 2016

Response by poster: Yep, I've made ample use of TinEye.

I ordered a hardcover copy of that Mark Girouard book, too.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 12:51 PM on August 1, 2016

You'll have to contact the producers of the TV show and get their permission if your game will refer to the fictional Downton Abbey. In that case, they ought to have the plans you need.
posted by JimN2TAW at 12:57 PM on August 1, 2016

Response by poster: Nope: "I'd like to create a video game level closely based on the real castle."
posted by escape from the potato planet at 1:05 PM on August 1, 2016

Then you need to contact the castle. I live about 20 miles from it BTW.
posted by A189Nut at 3:14 PM on August 1, 2016

Response by poster: In case someone comes across this post in the future:

I got my copy of The Victorian Country House in the mail yesterday. Unfortunately, it only includes the ground floor plan.

I also contacted the castle on Facebook. The person who responded said that, to their knowledge, the floor plans have never been published publicly.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 9:04 AM on August 9, 2016