I was recently in London (to watch football, obviously) and after years of wanting to go, I finally got to do a pilgrimage to Highclere Castle (aka the estate in Downton Abbey). Since Highclere is still a private residence, it isn't open to the public for many days each year. So despite that fact that I go to the UK all of the time, this was the first time that I was there while it was open. It was AMAZING. If you like Downton Abbey, I highly encourage you to put this on your bucket list. The house was more impressive than more royal palaces I've visited and the amount of joy I felt just walking up to it was off the charts. The day I was there was rainy, so I didn't walk around as much of the grounds as I would have liked. It was easy to get to on my own (just a ~45 min train ride then a ~15 min cab ride) so you don't need to do an expensive tour from London.
On a separate day trip to Blenheim Palace I also got to go to Bampton (aka where they shot the village scenes on the show). This you do need a tour for, as Bampton is in the middle of nowhere in the Cotswolds. Luckily I had been meaning to go to Blenheim Palace too, so doing a tour from London was a good use of money (getting to Blenheim on your own is doable, but harder than getting to Highclere).
They don't allow photography inside of Highclere, but here are some exterior shots:


As for Bampton, this is the house that served as the Grantham Arms pub (you can still see the holders for where they put up the sign):

This is the hospital (in real life it is a library):

This is the village commons where the war memorial was (and the wall with the special memorial for Archie):


This is the house that they used for the exterior of Isabel Crawley's house:

And most importantly, this is the church where Lady Mary got married and Lady Edith...tried to get married:


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