What’s a “Downton Abbey” fan to do now that the series is over?
Consider a trip to soothe your sorrows. There are castles and dozens of film locations in Britain, and Gilded Age mansions here. There are maps and apps and even a costume exhibit touring museums around the U.S. Here are some details.
Highclere Castle
Highclere Castle, where most of “Downton” was filmed, is about 45 miles from London and open to the public 60 to 70 days a year in spring and summer. Advance tickets to tour the mansion are nearly sold out for 2016, although some walk-up tickets are available. Details at .
Some private tour operators, such as Collette, offer trips that guarantee access to Highclere.
For a tour without going anywhere, try the $2.99 Highclere app.
Elsewhere across the pond
A free online map detailing 71 “Downton” locations, nearly half in London, was put together by the United Kingdom branch of Wayfair, the home goods retailer: . Sites include West Wycombe Park, featured as Lady Rosamund’s London home at 35 Belgrave Square; the London Charterhouse, used in three scenes; and the Great Conservatory at Syon Park in Brentford, where Lady Mary and Lord Gillingham had tea.
Fangirl Samantha Scott, who works at Stride Travel, a review site for tours and trips, put together a guide to 10 “Downton” locations, including Bampton church, featured in the wedding of Carson and Mrs. Hughes, and Horsted Keynes Railway Station, where many scenes were shot, including Lady Mary’s farewell to her husband as he went off to war: .html.
offers a variety of “Downton”-themed tours, including one focusing on locations in London.
And let’s not forget Inveraray Castle in Scotland, the setting for the fictional Duneagle Castle, home to the Grantham cousins and the lovely, headstrong Lady Rose. The castle is a bit more discreet than other sites in advertising its connection to the series, but its website offers some details: .html.
Other destinations with no connection to the show are also offering themselves to “Downton” fans in mourning. In Scotland, Dundas Castle’s “Downton Experience” starts at $3,500 a day. Here’s the pitch: “Whether you want to live like a lord, cook like Mrs. Patmore or just learn how things were done in times gone by, the Downton Experience gives Castle guests firsthand experience of life in a grand house.”
Stateside
Consider a trip to Newport, R.I., to see the Breakers, the Elms and other Gilded Age mansions. These massive, ornate homes, filled with art and antiques and set on lavishly landscaped grounds, were built and owned by nouveau riche Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their new money was despised by British aristocracy, but the backstory of Lord Grantham showed how those U.S. dollars often were used to prop up the crumbling world of England’s landed gentry: He took his bride, Cora, from one of those rich American families because he needed her fortune to secure his estate. Cora’s American mother, played by the inimitable Shirley MacLaine in a few early episodes, lived in Rhode Island.
Other famous Gilded Age mansions include the Biltmore in Asheville, N.C., and The Mount, in western Massachusetts.
“Dressing Downton” exhibition
Do you love drop-waist dresses, elbow-length gloves and festive hats? Get your costume fix at an exhibition called “Dressing Downton,” now at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum in Chicago.
The exhibition, subtitled, “Changing Fashion for Changing Times,” is billed as a “costume chronicle” with period clothing and jewelry worn by servants as well as lords and ladies.
Over the next two years, the exhibition will move to Cincinnati’s Taft Museum of Art; The History Museum in South Bend, Ind.; Anaheim, Calif.’s Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center; Nashville, Tenn.’s Cheekwood Botanical Gardens & Museum of Art; and finally St. Augustine, Fla.’s Lightner Museum. Details at .
Drown your sorrows
You could drown your sorrows with a few stiff cocktails during a night on the town, as Lady Mary did with her beaus in London. If you prefer sipping Earl Grey or Darjeeling tea from a floral-patterned china teacup with a platter of scones and finger sandwiches, head to a hotel or tea shop.
If all else fails, take your cue from Violet, the Dowager Countess. After learning she’d been removed from the board of the local hospital, she escaped her troubles with a cruise to France.
