– and that is exactly what makes this set-jetting trip so much fun to plan
Here is the twist that surprises almost everyone who watches The Crown: the production never filmed at Buckingham Palace. Never at Windsor Castle. Never at the real Balmoral.
The royal family was, understandably, not interested in lending their actual homes to a television show about themselves. So the production designers did something almost more interesting — they found a constellation of England and Scotland’s most extraordinary stately homes and quietly turned them into the most famous addresses in the world.
Eight different properties played Buckingham Palace alone. The result is six seasons of some of the most sumptuous interiors ever filmed, scattered across real, visitable country houses that most travelers have never heard of.
This is the set-jetting trip where the destinations are arguably more interesting than the real thing they were standing in for
Buckingham Palace, Played by Eight Different Houses
Wilton House in Wiltshire is the production’s most frequent stand-in for the Palace, used for the ballroom and formal dining room scenes across multiple seasons. It is also one of the most historically significant houses in England, home to the Earls of Pembroke since the 1540s, with an art collection featuring van Dyck and Rembrandt and 22 acres of parkland designed by Capability Brown. It is open to the public year-round.
Lancaster House on Pall Mall, just a few doors from the real palace, provided the State Rooms and the Queen’s office in later seasons. Built in the 1820s, it has its own royal history — Queen Victoria once told its resident Duchess of Sunderland, I come from my house to your palace. Tours are available by inquiry.
Wrotham Park supplied the Audience Room, and the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich stood in for the Palace exterior in some sequences. Visiting all of them in sequence is its own kind of treasure hunt through English aristocratic history.
Balmoral, Played by a Castle You Have Never Heard Of
This is the one that gets fans every time. The Queen’s beloved Scottish retreat — the setting for the legendary Balmoral Test scene with Margaret Thatcher and the devastating moment the family learns of Princess Diana’s death — was filmed at Ardverikie Estate, a nineteenth century Gothic house on the shores of Loch Laggan in the Central Highlands.
Ardverikie has its own genuine royal history, having hosted Queen Victoria, and its turrets and brooding architecture make it nearly indistinguishable from the real Balmoral on screen. The 38,000 acre estate is open for tours and stocks roughly 1,000 red deer across its grounds. You can even book one of eight cottages on the property and sleep on the same land where some of the show’s most pivotal scenes were filmed.
For later seasons, interior Balmoral scenes shifted to North Mymms Park and Hedsor House in Hertfordshire — both stunning properties in their own right and considerably easier to reach from London than the Highlands.
Windsor Castle, Played by Burghley House
Burghley House in Lincolnshire took over Windsor Castle duties for seasons four and beyond, after Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire handled the earlier seasons. Burghley is a genuine Elizabethan treasure, built in the 16th century and still owned by the family of Sir William Cecil, who constructed it. The state rooms are extravagant in a way that makes you understand immediately why it was chosen to represent a royal residence.
Belvoir Castle, meanwhile, is one of the most romantic and recognizable castles in England in its own right, home to the Duke of Rutland’s family since 1067, and well worth a visit regardless of its Crown connection.
The Wedding Locations
Westminster Abbey was, like the rest of the real royal sites, off limits — so Season 1’s royal wedding was filmed at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, one of the most striking Norman cathedrals in England. The series finale wedding, Charles and Camilla’s, used York Minster in the northeast, standing in for St. George’s Chapel at Windsor.
Both cathedrals are extraordinary destinations on their own merits and make natural stops on a Crown-themed England itinerary, particularly if you are routing between London and Scotland.
Scotland Beyond Balmoral
St Andrews appears as something close to itself — Prince William and Kate Middleton genuinely met there as students, and the town remains one of the most charming coastal destinations in Scotland, golf history included.
Scone Palace in Perthshire, where Scottish monarchs including Elizabeth II were traditionally crowned on the Stone of Destiny, makes an appearance and connects directly to centuries of real royal history, no soundstage required.
The Cairngorms surrounding the real Balmoral Estate, including Lochnagar and the Balmoral Pyramid built as a monument to Prince Albert, remain open to the public and offer some of the most dramatic scenery in the UK regardless of which castle you are picturing.
How to Build This Trip
A well-paced itinerary threads London, the English countryside, and the Scottish Highlands into roughly ten to twelve days. Start in London for Lancaster House and the Old Royal Naval College, then move into the countryside for Wilton House, Burghley House, and Belvoir Castle, before heading north into Scotland for Ardverikie, the Cairngorms, and St Andrews.
Many of these estates host weddings, private events, and limited public tour days, so timing matters. I build these itineraries around current opening schedules and combine them with proper country house hotel stays, because if you are visiting the real life Downton-adjacent England, you may as well sleep in it too.
The royal family kept their actual homes private. The production responded by quietly assembling one of the finest country house tours in England, almost by accident. That tour is very much available to you
Ready to plan your own Crown itinerary
Visit amoretraveldesigns.com/contact-me or reach me at cathy@amoretraveldesigns.com. Let’s build your England and Scotland trip.
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