The beautiful old railway station near Castle Howard that you can stay overnight in

Castle Howard Station is now a private home with attached holiday accommodation

Part of the old Castle Howard Station building has been converted into guest accommodation and is surrounded by history.

Built in 1845, the station on the York to Scarborough line was essentially a private halt for the Howard family, Earls of Carlisle, in return for them granting land on the Castle Howard estate to the railway company. Passengers from the nearby village of Welburn also used it.

The Howards had a private waiting room and could even request trains from York on demand.

Part of the station can be rented by visitors

The remote Dales railway station that became a holiday let and is now for sale

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert alighted there when visiting the Earl en route to Newcastle, and the magnificent Atlas fountain in the grounds of the house was transported from the Great Exhibition by rail and unloaded at Castle Howard Station.

The Grade II-listed station house was sold after the station closed to passenger traffic in 1930, and its current owner is racehorse vet Edmund Collins and his wife Anne, who bought the property in 1986.

After the closure, an old waiting shed was turned into a holiday let by the railway company, while the station remained in use for freight and parcels until the 1950s, manned by a station-master.

The old station sign was discovered in a farmer's shed and has now been restored

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They sold the station buildings and grounds in 1964 and a former railway inspector was the first private owner.

Mr Collins used part of the waiting room and platform for his veterinary surgery after moving in, and it's now become a holiday let, Platform One.

There's now an online archive of collated memories from the station's heyday, www.castlehowardstation.com.

The station during its operational years

“It’s not just the story of the station, it includes the social and economic history of the area. Having a railway station here made a tremendous difference to the people who lived nearby. Steam locomotives were as exciting as artificial intelligence and robots are now and the station meant that locals could sell their produce to cities. Previously, they had been limited to how far a horse and cart could go,” said Anne Collins, who has a degree in history.

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The station's impressive architecture is thought to have been commissioned in deference to the Howard family.

In an amazing coincidence, Edmund managed to stumble upon the original station sign in a farmer's outbuilding while treating a goat in Slingsby. He took it away with him instead of invoicing the farmer, and the couple have since restored it.