The wild success of the film Saltburn has seen a boom in tourists and fans heading to the mansion where it was filmed. Located in idyllic Northamptonshire, next to the village of Lowick, Drayton House played host to the likes of Barry Keoghan, Rosamund Pike, Jacob Elordi and Richard E. Grant.
Built in the 1300s and in the Sackville family since the 18th century, its current owner Charles Stopford Sackville has bemoaned the amount of visitors coming to the house and claims some have even trespassed. However, the estate is on the route of a well-known public footpath, which has been the subject of popular TikTok videos.
Speaking to Rhian Williams, PR and Marketing Consultant, the local spoke to us of the impact the film has had and her TikTok videos on the mansion which have earnt almost six million views. While stressing the importance of not trespassing and the need to stick to the footpath, Rhian told us: "It's brilliant to see such a hidden corner of our beautiful Northamptonshire in such a major film like Saltburn.
"Our county is so beautiful but often gets overlooked in favour of the countryside in places like the Cotswolds or Cornwall but it is very beautiful. I'm a huge advocate of Northamptonshire as a county to live, work and visit."
Describing the walk, which goes by the house, Rhian said: "The public footpath goes right up through the estate and you can very clearly see Drayton House from the footpath, and take good photographs, so there's no need to stray.
"You can park in the village of Lowick, where it is about a kilometre to the public footpath through the estate, or there are five public parking spaces at the entrance to the gated Estate. It's about a 20-minute slow walk up to where you can see the house."
Lowick has experienced a tourism boom, with local pubs reporting they've done double the trade they would usually do at weekends. Over Saturday and Sunday, Rhian says the walk also gets busier, but last time she visited: "It was on an afternoon in the middle of the week, on a very sunny but cold day, and we saw about eight other people on the footpath."
Saltburn follows a student at Oxford University who becomes obsessed with an aristocratic fellow student, who later invites him to spend the summer at his family's estate. It has won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film, Best Original Score, while Keoghan, Pike and Elordi have all collected Baftas for their performances in it.
Owner of Drayton House, Stopford Sackville, is reportedly friends with Saltburn director Emerald Fennell's parents, hence its use for filming. Stopford Sackville has complained of at least 50 people straying from the public footpath and trespassing, echoing Rhian's call for the public to respect boundaries.
