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The tour was led by the Curator of Castle Howard, Dr Christopher Ridgway. Click on the links below to hear him talking about the three monuments. First stop was the Pyramid.

The Pyramid

The Pyramid was built in 1728 by Nicholas Hawksmoor and is sited along the same ridge as the Gatehouse. It is hollow inside and contains a colossal bust of Lord William Howard, the 3rd Earl's great-great-great grandfather, the Elizabethan founder of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family.

The Mausoleum

In the 1720s the 3rd Earl of Carlisle announced his decision to build a grand funeral monument for himself and his family. Initially he consulted Vanbrugh, but following his death in 1726, the Earl turned to Nicholas Hawksmoor to realise his dream. The result is one of the finest, free-standing mausolea in northern Europe.

Mausoleum

Begun in 1729, the Mausoleum took just over twelve years to build. Hawksmoor's initial design for a cylindrical structure sitting on a square plinth was modified by a triumvirate of gentleman architects. These were the young 4th Earl, his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Robinson, and their colleague Lord Burlington, the patron of the new style of Palladian architecture.

These alterations included the steps on the eastern side and the surrounding bastion wall built by Daniel Garrett in the 1740s.

Ill-health and pressure of work in London prevented Hawksmoor from visiting often and, by the time of his death in 1736, the building had reached the height of the principal windows. The 3rd Earl died two years later and was temporarily buried in St Martin's Church, Bulmer, three miles away, before being interred in the Mausoleum in 1741.

Beneath the chapel is the crypt, which contains 63 loculi, or niches, for receiving coffins. The Mausoleum is still the burial place of the Howard family.

Temple of the Four Winds

The Temple Of The Four Winds

Early in 1724 Vanbrugh sent Lord Carlisle some designs for a pavilion for the south-east corner of Ray Wood, and shortly afterwards he was pleased to learn that the Earl had at last chosen the Temple with four Porticos.

Known originally as the Temple of Diana, the building, a cube with dome and porticos, is modelled in part on Andrea Palladio's famous 16th century Villa Rotonda in Vicenza. By the time of Vanbrugh's death, in 1726, the Temple was unfinished and another ten years were to pass before the interiors were finally decorated with scagliola in 1738 by the stuccoist Francesco Vassalli.

Beneath the temple is a cellar where servants would have stored and prepared food before serving it to polite company above. Used as a place for refreshment and reading, it commands impressive views.听

Dr Christopher Ridgway

The temple was restored in 1955 as one of the first of the major restoration projects undertaken by George Howard after the Second World War. In 2001 the Hon Simon Howard held his marriage ceremony with Rebecca Sieff in the Temple.