Henry VIII and later Elizabeth I both owned this house, one of the finest in Jacobean England, now open only on pre-booked summer tours
Access unclearno public right of way confirmed — check locally before setting out
Elizabeth I inherited Apethorpe from her father, Henry VIII, though the house soon passed into private hands and ended up with the Mildmay family and their descendants, the Fanes. Royalty kept returning even so. Elizabeth herself dined here on progress in the 1560s and 1580s, and both James I and his son Charles I treated it as a regular stop on their travels. James paid for a grand new range of state rooms in 1622, among them the King’s Bedchamber and a long gallery, which together rank as some of the most complete survivals of their kind from the period. It was at Apethorpe in 1614 that James first met the young George Villiers, the courtier who went on to become Duke of Buckingham.
By the 20th century the house had come down in the world. It spent time as a Catholic-run approved school, a residential school for young offenders, then stood empty for years after plans to turn it into a private university collapsed. In 2004 the government took the rare step of compulsorily purchasing the whole estate to save it from ruin, and English Heritage spent around £8 million making it weatherproof. When the restored house was sold to a private buyer in 2015, it was renamed Apethorpe Palace in recognition of its royal history, and the new owner agreed to open it to the public on set days each year.
Apethorpe Palace is privately owned today, and pre-booked tours run only for a short season each year. The village of Apethorpe sits right next to the house, and Fotheringhay is a couple of miles south-east.
Full name: Apethorpe Palace formerly Known As Apethorpe Hall
