How to Visit the Sordid Halls of ‘Saltburn’ IRL

While Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi appear to have the most fun in Saltburn, it's the titular location that's serving major vibes.

The movie follows Oxford scholarship student Oliver Quick (Keoghan) as he's invited for the summer to his new wealthy, eccentric friend Felix Catton's (Elordi) "f---off castle," where nothing is as it seems.

Plenty of beauty, decadence and sheer filth unfold in director Emerald Fennell's latest movie — in the form of Keoghan dancing naked through the vacant halls of Saltburn, slurping Elordi's bodily fluids from a bathtub drain and having period sex with Alison Oliver's Venetia in the moonlit garden.

Although there's so much more going on in the movie, the grand architectural wonders of its central filming location are almost as seductive as Elordi and Keoghan's onscreen chemistry.

Here's what to know about the real English country estate behind the titular abode in Emerald Fennell's Saltburn.

Is Saltburn a real place?

No. While the movie's 2006 setting gives some "based on a true story" vibes, it's a complete work of fiction, including its location.

Fennell told Screen Daily she chose the name Saltburn for the setting because it "has something innately sensual to it, combining the sensations of sweat and pleasure and pain as well. It’s a word you can feel."

Inspired by novels like The Go-Between, Brideshead Revisited, Jude the Obscure and The Remains of the Day, Fennell told Vanity Fair she had always wanted to set a story in a British country estate.

"It’s always fun to play in a genre that feels well worn, that we’re all familiar with," she said. "If there’s a world that we have some relationship with already, that’s quite fun to subvert in ways and surprise."

Fennell explained that in scouting a perfect home for the Cattons, she wanted one that wasn't recognizable (sorry, Downton Abbey) and would be able to serve as the main setting, including for interior shots.

"We were incredibly lucky because the thing about the Saltburn house is the place itself feels alive," Fennell told Empire. "We all had that feeling we were about to lose our minds. It really did feel so special being able to do that, rather than just being on a soundstage."

Where was Saltburn filmed?

Fennell told Vogue she "put the word out" that she was in search of a filming location, and she ended up at the private family home of Drayton House in Lowick, Northamptonshire, England.

"People live there. The heating is on. It's beyond f---ing anything," Fennell told Vogue.

The property's seven-century history allegedly includes some pretty wild stories of its own, including a royal-decreed beheading and visits from King Henry VIII.

Since it was built in the 1300s, Saltburn was the estate's first onscreen appearance, and it might be the last. One stipulation of filming at the estate was that its location and owners not be revealed, a condition that has long been broken.

"We are contractually not allowed to say where the house is or what the house is — because it had never been filmed in or even photographed before," Fennell told Screen Daily. "But I can confirm it is one house, and that helped us so much to get into the mindset. We could feel very much together; everyone eats together at long tables, we work together, we hang out together."

Several cast members, including Rosamund Pike, even accepted an invitation to stay at the property during filming.

"Our trucks were there permanently, our cranes were in the garden, our ping-pong tables and football goals were all covering their lawn," Pike told Vogue. "The offer came up to stay there, and I thought, 'Well, yeah, that's going to be a very interesting experience.' Then, on day one, when I opened my curtains, there was the whole crew."

Is Drayton House open to the public?

Being that Drayton House is, in fact, a private family home, it is not open to the public.

But according to Northamptonshire Surprise, the estate is available for pre-booked parties, study days and guided tours on Wednesdays between Easter and September. Bookings can be made through the Drayton Estate office.

There's always the less conventional option of cozying up to an heir until he invites you home for the summer. But let's leave that on the big screen (and streaming).

Saltburn is now playing in theaters and is available to stream on Dec. 22 on Prime Video.