Hello listeners. We know how much you love being immersed in the history of our palaces.

So, over the next three episodes, we'll be taking you behind closed doors,

pulling back the curtains and transporting you to some of the most special places in our palaces.

Our curators will give you a private tour through their favourite spaces, even some that aren't open to visitors.

Welcome to the brand new series of a space I love.

Get ready to escape the past with us. I'm standing in Staircase Hall here in Hillsborough Castle in County Down, Northern Ireland.

This small space is really an access point for those people who are staying here at Hillsborough Castle.

Hillsborough Castle, of course, being the Royal Residence here in Northern Ireland, and the home of

the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he's here. So it's a busy house. And when we have

guests here, the doors are open, the luggage is brought in and carried up the beautiful Georgian staircase

that runs out of this hallway, up to the apartments above.

So the house originally was built in the 1750s by Will's Hill, who was the head of one of the

most influential families on the island of Ireland at the time.

And they had settled here in Hillsborough where he built this family home.

We call it a castle, but of course it's really an Irish big house built in the Georgian period.

The house was extended over time and the Hill family would have used this very space at the turn of the 19th century to make their way to the upper floors of the building.

So the house is beautifully quiet at the moment.

This is a very busy house normally

with lots and lots of visitors,

going through lots of events here.

We have people taking tours here, all kinds of things happen.

But right now I'm very lucky because I'm standing in this space by myself and

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