Tickets Alert: Tours of Longford Castle, near Salisbury

For the 2024 tickets, go here.

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During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, an unusually shaped castle was built on the banks of the River Avon not far from Salisbury, and 450 years later, it’s still a private home that a few years ago, started opening to the public, but only for guided tours.

This is the rather remarkable Longford Castle, home of the Earl of Radnor, and apart from its unusual exterior, it’s packed full with enough grand master paintings to make most major galleries sigh in envy. It’s also a very odd-looking castle externally, and thanks to the centuries of changes, internally an eclectic mix of Elizabethan, Georgian and Victorian decoration.

Tours are organised by the National Gallery, as part of an art collection sharing agreement between the castle and the gallery, and tickets for this year’s open days are now on sale.

What you will get to see is the very odd design of Longford Castle, and then a tour of the very impressive art collection inside.

As photography inside is not permitted, as it’s still a private home, hardly any pictures of the interior exist online (one example here), but I can say it’s pretty grand in there, and packed with all the big name artists that you’d expect an old castle to own.

It was a relaxing tour, not pretentious or fussy, and very enjoyable.

The tour, including a walk around the gardens where photos are allowed, and the coach pick-up/drop off to get to the castle last around 4 hours. As it’s close to Salisbury, you can comfortably spend the morning around the Cathedral and local museums in Salisbury, and the afternoon in the Castle.

Which is exactly what I did last year.

Tickets to visit Longford Castle can be bought from here, and cost £16 per person, including the coach pick-up from outside Salisbury railway station.

(The page says fully booked on some dates in red – IGNORE that, and click on the blue “choose date” button to find available dates to visit.)

At the time of writing, the following dates are available:

• Monday, 13 March 2023
• Tuesday, 14 March 2023
• Wednesday, 15 March 2023
• Thursday, 16 March 2023
• Friday, 17 March 2023
• Friday, 21 April 2023
• Monday, 24 April 2023
• Tuesday, 25 April 2023
• Wednesday, 26 April 2023
• Thursday, 27 April 2023
• Tuesday, 9 May 2023
• Wednesday, 10 May 2023
• Thursday, 11 May 2023
• Friday, 12 May 2023
• Thursday, 20 July 2023
• Friday, 21 July 2023
• Sunday, 23 July 2023
• Monday, 24 July 2023
• Tuesday, 25 July 2023
• Monday, 28 August 2023
• Tuesday, 29 August 2023
• Wednesday, 30 August 2023
• Thursday, 31 August 2023
• Friday, 1 September 2023
• Sunday, 3 September 2023

Direct trains from London Waterloo to Salisbury take around 90 minutes.