My new life in LOCK-DOWNTON
Her castle starred in hit TV show, but now the Duchess of Argyll has had to furlough her staff... and get her brush and dustpan out
IT STARRED as the gorgeous backdrop for one of Downton Abbey’s most gripping episodes, complete with an army of servants to wait on the needs of the show’s fictional aristocratic family. In reality, however, Inveraray Castle usually operates at this time of the year with a slightly more modest 100 members of staff.
They include a housekeeper, cleaner, caretaker, gardener and guides, who help to tend to the estate and welcome more than 125,000 visitors who descend during the tourist season.
But now, under lockdown, castle owners the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, Torquhil Campbell and his wife Eleanor, have found themselves managing both ‘upstairs and downstairs’ – and are loving every frugal minute of doing so.
The 47-year-old duchess has been spending much of her time clearing out attic spaces and fridges, vacuuming the darkest corners of the castle, mowing the lawns – and making new dishes from 100 excess Babybel cheeses that were being kept in the now empty tea rooms.
She said: ‘I’ve gone into corners of the castle that no one has been into before in hundreds of years.
‘I’ve been cleaning, gardening, clearing out the attic and finding stuff no one ever had time to do before, and making the most of having different hours in the day.’
The former London PR executive, a member of the Cadbury dynasty, married the 13th Duke in 2002.
She said: ‘We are normally frantic with tourists at this time of year. Now there are none. I don’t have anyone helping at the moment other than a few key people.
‘We have furloughed around twothirds of our staff because we can’t use them in places like our tearoom, shop and as castle guides until the lockdown is over.
‘As soon as we are allowed by the Government we will open the gardens with responsible social distancing. For now, I’m having to learn all sorts of things – and I’ve come to the conclusion that the cleaner is worth every penny.’
The castle and surrounding estate, on the shores of Loch Fyne, featured as the fictional Duneagle Castle in Downton’s 2012 Christmas special, in which the ITV show’s Grantham family and staff travelled to Scotland to the home of their cousins, the Marquess and Marchioness of Flintshire.
But the days of such opulence as seen on the show are ‘long gone’, the duchess insists.
She and her husband have no butler on hand now – instead, their three children, Lord Archie, 16, Lord Rory, 14, and Lady Charlotte, 11, are all mucking in to keep the castle in good condition.
The duchess said: ‘You can’t have a house like this and not get stuck in. The days of Downtown Abbey are long gone.
‘The children are getting quite handy and everyone can strip and make their own bed once a week.
‘I wouldn’t trust them to clean the loos properly but they are perfectly capable of wielding a vacuum cleaner. Even if they don’t get the corners, I can.’
But it is in the castle’s attics and the empty tea rooms that the duchess – more of a fan of jeans and trainers than tiaras and ballgowns – has found endless fun.
She said: ‘In the attics I’ve found all sorts of rubbish as well as exciting things.
‘I’ve found some beautiful Georgian carved ornate chairs, which are original to the house, as well as some paintings, portraits and frames without pictures that were put up there because there was no money for restoration at the time.
‘There are also all sorts of clothes through the generations. I’m fishing it all out so we can prioritise what is important now.’
The family have found themselves at their most inventive, however, when faced with finding a use for 100 Babybel cheeses, pictured left, that were in the tea room in preparation for the start of the season, which had been due to begin on April 1.
The duchess said: ‘We’ve been using them on pastry, pizza bases, and as cheese goujons. You have to find it funny, don’t you?’
Above all, she believes isolation has taught her patience.
She said: ‘The fact you are not going out socially means it has become more simple in a way.
‘There’s only so much you can do – you can clean your house, make the shopping list, you can go to the supermarket once a week and get what you really need.
‘You realise how much waste you had before. Now if there’s a little end of cheese, you save it, when before you would put it in the bin and go for another bit. You have the ends of a loaf of bread no one else would eat and now you make it into breadcrumbs.
‘I think we’d all like to think we’d change life going forward from this. I’d like to think we’d be a bit more frugal. I’m probably doing exactly the same as the next person, but just doing it on a slightly bigger scale.’
She added: ‘I’ve got a huge pile of rubbish to fill a trailer on the back of the pick-up. In the attic, I also found old fire hazards.
‘We are very lucky with the space we have to walk around in. I want to thank people in Argyll for being so sensible because some places are having a nightmare.’
I’m having to learn all sorts of things... my cleaner is worth every penny