The high-ticket page · The Castle Rolls
Of the 405 castles on the roll, 59 will let you stay the night — somewhere between a £20 bunk in a genuinely haunted Norman keep and a Relais & Châteaux suite behind medieval walls. Here they are, sorted honestly by what you'd actually be sleeping in.
"Castle" is not a protected word. Some of the places below are medieval fortresses with a holiday flat tucked inside the walls; others are Victorian country houses built in the baronial style and called castles by their architects. Both can be a wonderful night away — but they are not the same thing, and the one-line description under each entry tells you which you're getting. We've split the list by how it's run first, because that's the practical question; the age of the fabric is in the notes.
These are the special ones: a holiday apartment, cottage or B&B room set inside genuinely historic castle fabric, where you have the place largely to yourself once the day-visitors have gone home. English Heritage lets rooms within the walls at Dover and Walmer; the Landmark Trust rescues medieval gatehouses and rents them by the night; the National Trust for Scotland opens whole wings of its tower houses. You cater for yourself, mostly — which is rather the point.
Warwickshire
Award-winning holiday let; occasional open days
Northumberland
Holiday apartments in castle towers
County Durham
~76 open days yearly; castle holiday flat
Isle of Wight
Bowling Green Apartment holiday let on site
North Yorkshire
Gatehouse holiday let
Northumberland
Self-catering apartments in the castle
Kent
Two EH holiday lets within the walls
County Durham
Guided tours; B&B during university vacations
Herefordshire
Selected open days; exclusive-hire castle bedrooms
Kent
B&B in Astor Wing
Devon
Holiday let; occasional open days
Kent
Maiden's Tower and B&B stays on site
Shropshire
Castle House holiday apartments within walls
Northumberland
Gatehouse holiday let
Cornwall
Henrician artillery fort; two EH holiday cottages
Cornwall
Henrician artillery fort; Fort House holiday cottage nearby
Devon
Limited summer opening; holiday apartments in castle
Kent
Lord Warden's residence; two holiday lets
Warwickshire
Tower Suites and Knight's Village stays
Argyll and Bute
1609 tower house; B&B summer, exclusive hire winter
Moray
Laird's Wing sleeps 14 within the castle
Aberdeenshire
One of Scotland's largest tower houses; East Wing apartment bookable
Aberdeenshire
Tours May and September; grounds anytime; exclusive-use stays
South Ayrshire
Robert Adam clifftop castle; Eisenhower apartment and Brewhouse flat bookable
Aberdeenshire
Open daily Jan-Dec; holiday suites inside castle
Aberdeenshire
Preston Tower Apartment sleeps 12 within the castle
Argyll and Bute
Mull; B&B and castle apartment; grounds/coffee shop public
Argyll and Bute
Restored 16th-century castle; B&B and exclusive hire
Check in, and dinner is somebody else's problem. This is the broadest group and the most varied — it runs from genuinely medieval strongholds converted to hotels (Thornbury is Tudor, Langley and Lumley are fourteenth-century) to the great cluster of Scottish Victorian-baronial mansions built to look far older than they are. The notes say which is which.
West Sussex
Medieval walls; dining open to non-residents
Cumbria
Castle hotel plus daily keep/grounds tours
North Yorkshire
Medieval-core castle hotel and spa
Northumberland
Daily battlements tour open to non-residents
County Durham
Dining and events open to non-residents
Oxfordshire
Malmaison hotel in former prison wing
Cheshire
Full-scale Victorian castle hotel
Cornwall
16thC star fort hotel, Isles of Scilly
Gloucestershire
Tudor castle hotel; dining open to non-residents
County Durham
16thC castle hotel near Darlington
South Lanarkshire
16th-century tower plus mansion; luxury hotel
Midlothian
13th-century castle; falconry; non-residents can dine
Highland
15th-century bishop's palace; noted whisky bar; trading normally
Perth and Kinross
Victorian baronial, Pitlochry; spa hotel
South Ayrshire
Victorian baronial; Relais & Chateaux luxury hotel
Highland
Victorian baronial mansion-castle near Fort William
Midlothian
1791 castellated mansion near Edinburgh
Argyll and Bute
Victorian baronial overlooking Loch Fyne
Highland
12th-century origins; Dingwall
Denbighshire
Museum closed 2019; Warner bought castle 2021, adults-only hotel
Powys
Adelina Patti's Victorian castle; adjacent country park free
Pembrokeshire
Norman tower restored as luxury hotel
Denbighshire
Hotel and spa amid genuine medieval ruins
St Briavels Castle, a genuine thirteenth-century royal castle and former King John hunting lodge on the edge of the Forest of Dean, is run by the YHA as a hostel — which means you can sleep inside a real medieval castle for hostel money, in a building visitors otherwise pay to tour. It is comfortably the best-value castle night in the country.
Two of the stays below carry the Relais & Châteaux badge — Amberley Castle in Sussex, medieval curtain walls and a portcullis still lowered nightly, and Glenapp Castle in Ayrshire, Victorian-baronial but faultless. If the castle night is the occasion itself, start here.
We don't take bookings and we don't sell rooms — each entry links to that castle's own page, where you'll find its official site. Availability at the self-catering lets in particular (the English Heritage cottages, the Landmark Trust gatehouses, the National Trust for Scotland apartments) is genuinely tight, often booked months ahead, so plan early rather than hopefully.