Castles, Palaces & Stately Homes

Who runs what, and why it matters

Almost nothing historic in Britain is run by the government the way a US national park is. The castles, palaces and great houses belong to a patchwork of charities, royal trusts, churches and private families, and each has its own tickets, membership and rules. Knowing who owns a place tells you which pass gets you in free.

• Historic Royal Palaces (a charity): the Tower, Hampton Court, Kensington Palace and Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, among others.
• Royal Collection Trust: the working royal residences, including Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace (State Rooms in summer only) and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
• English Heritage (a charity caring for the state's collection in England): Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel, Kenilworth, Whitby Abbey, Osborne and most of the Hadrian's Wall forts.
• National Trust (a charity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland): over 350 places, such as Lacock Abbey, Corfe Castle, Sissinghurst, Powis Castle and Mount Stewart.
• National Trust for Scotland: a separate charity, with places such as Culross, Culzean Castle and the Glenfinnan visitor center.
• Historic Environment Scotland (a public body): Edinburgh, Stirling, Urquhart and Doune castles, Skara Brae in Orkney and over 300 other sites.
• Cadw (the Welsh Government's heritage service): Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech, Beaumaris and Caerphilly castles, Tintern Abbey and more.
• Private owners: Blenheim, Chatsworth, Castle Howard, Highclere, Alnwick, Bamburgh and Warwick Castle (run by Merlin Entertainments). No pass covers these.
• The Church: cathedrals are working churches run by their own chapters. Some charge sightseers, some ask for a donation, and all are free for services.

How admission works

Timed tickets and booking ahead

Most big sites now sell timed entry online, and the most popular ones sell out on summer weekends and in school holidays. Edinburgh Castle, Stonehenge, the Tower and Windsor are the places where turning up without a booking in July or August can mean a long wait or no entry. Online prices are often lower: Edinburgh Castle charges £23.50 (about $31) online against £26 (about $35) at the gate, and Cadw takes 5% off tickets booked online, though those are non-refundable.

Book two to four weeks ahead for peak summer and Easter, a few days ahead the rest of the year. Pass holders and members usually still need to reserve a free slot at the busiest sites, so treat the pass as a payment method and keep booking times.

The donation line on your ticket

British charities often show two prices online: a standard one and a "with donation" one about 10% higher (Historic Royal Palaces asks for an optional 10%). You are free to pick the lower price. The donation version is tied partly to Gift Aid, a UK tax scheme that only benefits UK taxpayers.

Tickets that turn into annual passes

Several places let a single ticket work for a year, which helps if you will pass through again or are staying a while:

• Royal Collection Trust tickets bought directly from the Trust (Windsor, Buckingham Palace, Holyroodhouse) can be converted into a free 1-Year Pass. Ask a warden at the end of your visit if your ticket was not set up that way at purchase.
• York Minster sightseeing tickets are valid for a year, and each adult ticket brings in up to four children aged 17 and under.
• Canterbury Cathedral sells its admission as an annual pass, from £18 (about $24), and children go free.
• Alnwick Castle tickets give unlimited return visits for 12 months during the open season.
• Warwick Castle sells a separate Annual Pass from £49 (about $65), and a Merlin Annual Pass from £139 (about $185) covers its other UK attractions.

Seasons and winter closures

Castles in state care (English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw) mostly stay open year-round with shorter winter hours, though smaller sites close or open only on weekends from November to March. Stately homes are another story: most National Trust and private houses shut their interiors from early November until late February or March, sometimes reopening for Christmas. Alnwick Castle, for example, has already closed for the winter and reopens in March 2027.

Weather closes sites too: Edinburgh Castle shuts in high winds, and clifftop castles close sections in storms. Check the site's homepage on the morning you go.

England: the royal palaces and great castles

England's stately homes

A "stately home" is a country house still owned by the family that built it, or by a trust, and opened to visitors to pay for the roof. Expect art collections that rival city museums, parks landscaped by Capability Brown and gardens that change by the month. Allow a full day for each.

Scotland's castles

Wales: Edward I's castles

Wales is often said to have more castles per square mile than anywhere in Europe. The four built by England's Edward I to subdue north Wales in the late 1200s (Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris) are a single UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you can see three in a day by car. All are run by Cadw. Signs are bilingual, and Welsh is spoken widely in the northwest; see Wales for the region, including the planned visitor levy.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's heritage is easy to combine with the Causeway Coast. The National Trust runs Mount Stewart (a house with one of the finest gardens in the UK, on Strangford Lough), Castle Ward (Winterfell in Game of Thrones), Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and the Giant's Causeway visitor center, so a Royal Oak membership earns its keep here. Dunluce Castle, a clifftop ruin on the Antrim coast, and Carrickfergus Castle, a Norman fortress outside Belfast, are run by the state. Historic Royal Palaces opens Hillsborough Castle, the royal residence in Northern Ireland, for tours. More on Northern Ireland.

Cathedrals: fees, donations and services

England's medieval cathedrals are among the greatest buildings in Europe, and how you pay to see them varies a lot. Roughly, the most visited charge a fixed admission, many others ask for a donation, and every one of them is free if you come to worship.

Others to put on a route: Salisbury (tallest spire in Britain and one of four original 1215 Magna Cartas), Wells, Ely, Lincoln, Winchester and Lichfield in England; St Davids in Pembrokeshire, the spiritual center of Wales; Glasgow Cathedral, a rare medieval survivor of the Scottish Reformation, run by Historic Environment Scotland; and St Giles' in Edinburgh.

Heritage passes and memberships compared

All prices below are for 2026. Pass prices are per pass, not per person, where the pass covers two or a family.

English Heritage Overseas Visitor Pass

Current prices apply to visits from March 25, 2026 to March 16, 2027. The family pass covers two adults and up to four under-18s at the same address. It includes general admission and standard events; evening and special events cost full price. It cannot be transferred, refunded or replaced.

1. Buy online at english-heritage.org.uk, choosing a start date, or buy in person at any staffed English Heritage site.
2. Save or print the confirmation email.
3. Collect the pass at your first staffed site, showing the confirmation, the credit card you paid with and proof that you live outside the UK. Your passport or US driver's license works, and a photocopy is accepted.
4. Reserve Stonehenge separately for a specific time slot, even with the pass, and check on the Stonehenge booking page how pass holders reserve.

Historic Environment Scotland Explorer Pass

Summer pricing runs April 1 to October 31; winter pricing starts November 1 and covers fewer open sites. It excludes Holyroodhouse, National Trust for Scotland places and private castles. Book time slots online for Edinburgh Castle and other busy sites. Pass holders get 20% off in-person audio tours at Edinburgh, Stirling and Glasgow Cathedral.

Cadw Explorer Pass

The three-day pass covers any three days within seven of your first visit; the seven-day pass, any seven days within 14. The family pass covers two adults and up to three under-18s. Buy online through Cadw or at sites. Some smaller sites, such as Plas Mawr, close in winter.

The National Trust through the Royal Oak Foundation

The Royal Oak Foundation is the National Trust's American partner. Joining through it costs less than UK membership, and basic and supporting levels are fully tax-deductible. You get free entry to National Trust and National Trust for Scotland places and free parking at most Trust car parks, but not places the Trust does not wholly own, such as Stonehenge.

Join at royal-oak.org about two months before you fly, since cards take six to eight weeks by mail. If time is short, print temporary cards and the parking pass from your online account (allow 24 hours). Joining at a property in Britain costs the higher UK price.

Which pass for which trip

Do the math with your actual list. Here is how it usually works out. (Tracing ancestors? The parish church may matter more than any castle; see ancestry.)

• A first week in London with a day at Windsor. No heritage pass: London's paid sights take none of them. Buy tickets direct, convert your Windsor ticket to a 1-Year Pass, and if the Tower, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace are all on your list, price up HRP membership.
• Edinburgh plus the Highlands. The Explorer Pass, almost always. Edinburgh Castle alone is £23.50 online; add Stirling or Urquhart and a fourth site and the £48 pass is clearly ahead. Two adults pay £96 against a £100 family pass, so if you have even one child along, the family pass wins.
• An England road trip through Stonehenge, Dover, Tintagel, Kenilworth, Whitby or Hadrian's Wall. The English Heritage pass. Stonehenge plus two or three other castles usually covers the cost of the 9-day pass, and for two adults the couple price of £102 brings each person under £52.
• The Cotswolds, Cornwall, the Lake District or Northern Ireland. Royal Oak, if the Trust's houses and gardens are what you are going for. Four or five visits plus parking usually beats the $80 or $125 fee, and you can deduct it.
• North Wales. The three-day Cadw pass. Caernarfon alone is £14.90 (about $20), so two castles nearly pay for it and the four Edwardian castles make it a clear saving.
• A big Britain-wide trip. Stack them: the English Heritage pass for the England week, the Explorer Pass for Scotland and Royal Oak for National Trust houses along the way. The private houses are always extra.
• Staying a semester or longer. Buy regular annual membership of English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland or Cadw instead; English Heritage and Cadw members also get half-price entry at Scottish sites in their first year. See long stays.

Photography, drones and bags

Rules differ by owner and even by room, so look for the camera symbols at the door. A general guide:

• Royal residences: photography has long been banned inside Windsor's State Apartments and St George's Chapel, with similar rules at Buckingham Palace and Holyroodhouse; the grounds are fine. At the Tower, no photos of the Crown Jewels.
• Private houses: many ban photos indoors. Highclere does not allow any photography or filming inside the castle; personal photos on the lawns are fine.
• National Trust, English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland and Cadw: personal photography without flash is allowed at most sites, including in many house interiors. Some rooms with fragile textiles or loaned art are exceptions.
• Cathedrals: most allow personal, non-flash photos outside service times. Put the camera away completely during services, and ask before photographing anyone at prayer.
• Tripods and selfie sticks: usually banned indoors and at crowded sites.
• Drones: the major heritage bodies forbid flying from or over their land without written permission, and UK aviation rules restrict flying near people and buildings.

Expect airport-style bag screening at the Tower, Windsor and the London cathedrals, and bring a small bag: large backpacks are often refused indoors.

Accessibility

Medieval buildings were designed to keep people out, and spiral stairs, cobbled slopes and uneven floors are normal. Access has improved a lot, though, and the big bodies publish an access guide for each site. Read it before you book.

• Companions and carers go free at most sites. Historic Environment Scotland gives a free carer ticket; Cadw admits a disabled visitor and companion free; the Tower has a disabled concession with a free carer; the National Trust runs an Essential Companion card scheme.
• Check the terrain rating. Cadw rates its sites by difficulty; Caernarfon is rated strenuous, with cobbles and gravel, although a lift now reaches the upper floors of the King's Gate.
• Ask about upper floors. In many houses the main state rooms are on the "first floor" (the American second floor) and reached only by stairs. Some offer a virtual tour or photo album of rooms you cannot reach.
• Cathedrals are generally the easiest: large step-free naves, hearing loops and wheelchair loans, though crypts and towers rarely have lifts.
• Blue Badge parking close to the entrance exists at most staffed sites; US disability placards are not formally recognized, so call ahead and explain.

Our travel by interest page covers accessible travel more broadly, including trains and hotels.

What trips people up

• Arriving in winter to find the house shut. Check stately home dates from November to March, and expect castles to close around 4pm.
• Missing closed days. Windsor Castle is closed every Tuesday and Wednesday; many houses open only four or five days a week.
• Assuming a pass covers a famous castle. Warwick, Alnwick, Bamburgh, Eilean Donan, Blenheim, Chatsworth and Highclere are private, and the Royal Collection takes no passes.
• Buying the Royal Oak membership too late. Cards take weeks to arrive; print the temporary ones.
• Planning a countryside heritage trip without a car. Most stately homes and many castles are hard to reach by bus. See driving, and for staying in a castle or country house, where to stay.
• Trying to sightsee during a service. Cathedrals close areas without much notice for weddings, funerals and special services, and London's great churches open for worship only on Sundays.