Coxwold Tourist Attractions

In Shandy Hall Laurence Sterne wrote the last part of "Tristram Shandy" and the whole of "Sentimental Journey". His small study is now dedicated to his memory.

From Coxwold return via Ampleforth to Gilling Castle (6mi/9.6km east), which was built in the 13th century and renovated in the 16th/18th centuries. Note the Norman tower and the Great Hall (1575-1585), the richly-decorated Elizabethan dining hall with heraldic stained glass windows by Bernard Dinckhoff (1585). The house is now occupied by a school. Visitors can also see the beautiful terraced gardens.

Before continuing along the B1257 to Malton (10mi/16km southeast of Gilling Castle) a signed detour leads from Slingsby to Castle Howard, a magnificent Palladian mansion built for the third Earl of Carlisle by John Vanbrugh. Both a dramatist and an architect, it was Vanbrugh's first major work, based on plans drawn by Wren. The house is owned by George Howard. Its garden front is particularly fine. The elegant rooms contain paintings, carving by Grinling Gibbons, period furniture and costumes, and valuable vases and statues. The grounds are on a scale to match the house with an impressive family mausoleum, an obelisk, a pyramid and the Temple of the Four Winds (1724-1726) by Vanbrugh."Brideshead Revisited", a popular television series based on Evelyn Waugh's book, was filmed at Castle Howard.Many of the early rooms were redone in William Morris wallpaper when it was the rage in the latter part of the 19th C.The garden features beautiful daffodils during the spring, one of the largest collections of old roses in England, a lake, a fountain, strutting peacocks and several garden temples.