Tourists pay £3k to live as Downton servants!
IF YOU paid £3,000 to spend a day experiencing life in a stately home, you might expect to be waited on hand and foot.
But thanks to the influence of Downton Abbey, one Scottish estate owner now has wealthy American tourists making the beds and polishing the silverware – while paying handsomely for the privilege.
Dundas Castle, in West Lothian, is offering visitors the opportunity to experience what it is really like to live in a grand house.
And due to the much-loved ITV period drama, many guests are opting to get a taste of life downstairs with the servants and butlers.
Popular activities from the ‘Downton Abbey experience’ include learning how to make a bed like a housemaid, cooking with the kitchen staff and polishing shoes and silverware. There is even a tutorial on how to address people and how to pack luggage just like Downton butler Mr Carson does in the series.
‘It has been really popular,’ said general manager Lucy Scillitoe. ‘It’s something that our American guests love to do because the Downton series has been popular worldwide. It’s gone down extremely well.’
Prices f or a one day Downton experience start at £3,000. It is not all hard work, however. There is also the option to put your feet up and enjoy how the other half lived, in what are described as ‘sumptuous’ castle surroundings.
So far all the Downton enthusiasts who have booked have been from America.
Dundas Castle is owned by former Tory MEP Sir Jack Stewart-Clark, who, with his wife Lady Lydia, has turned the 600-year-old home into a successful business.