The Castle Rolls
Castles you can sleep in.
Of the 429 castles on the roll, 65 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.
Sleep inside the walls - 37 self-catering lets & apartments
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.
England - 20
Astley Castle
Warwickshire
Award-winning holiday let; occasional open days
Auckland Castle
County Durham
Former bishops' palace-castle, restored 2019; self-catering Auckland Palace Stays cottages sit yards from the gates
Bamburgh Castle
Northumberland
Holiday apartments in castle towers
Brancepeth Castle
County Durham
~76 open days yearly; castle holiday flat
Carisbrooke Castle
Isle of Wight
Bowling Green Apartment holiday let on site
Cawood Castle
North Yorkshire
Gatehouse holiday let
Chillingham Castle
Northumberland
Self-catering apartments in the castle
Dover Castle
Kent
Two EH holiday lets within the walls
Durham Castle
County Durham
Guided tours; B&B during university vacations
Eastnor Castle
Herefordshire
Selected open days; exclusive-hire castle bedrooms
Hever Castle
Kent
B&B in Astor Wing
Kingswear Castle
Devon
Holiday let; occasional open days
Leeds Castle
Kent
Maiden's Tower and B&B stays on site
Ludlow Castle
Shropshire
Castle House holiday apartments within walls
Morpeth Castle
Northumberland
Gatehouse holiday let
Pendennis Castle
Cornwall
Henrician artillery fort; two EH holiday cottages
St Mawes Castle
Cornwall
Henrician artillery fort; Fort House holiday cottage nearby
Tiverton Castle
Devon
Limited summer opening; holiday apartments in castle
Walmer Castle and Gardens
Kent
Lord Warden's residence; two holiday lets
Warwick Castle
Warwickshire
Tower Suites and Knight's Village stays
Northern Ireland - 3
Scotland - 9
Barcaldine Castle
Argyll and Bute
1609 tower house; B&B summer, exclusive hire winter
Brodie Castle
Moray
Laird's Wing sleeps 14 within the castle
Castle Fraser
Aberdeenshire
One of Scotland's largest tower houses; East Wing apartment bookable
Craigston Castle
Aberdeenshire
Tours May and September; grounds anytime; exclusive-use stays
Culzean Castle
South Ayrshire
Robert Adam clifftop castle; Eisenhower apartment and Brewhouse flat bookable
Delgatie Castle
Aberdeenshire
Open daily Jan-Dec; holiday suites inside castle
Fyvie Castle
Aberdeenshire
Preston Tower Apartment sleeps 12 within the castle
Glengorm Castle
Argyll and Bute
Mull; B&B and castle apartment; grounds/coffee shop public
Kilmartin Castle
Argyll and Bute
Restored 16th-century castle; B&B and exclusive hire
Wales - 5
Cardigan Castle
Ceredigion
Restored 2015; B&B and self-catering on site
Gwrych Castle
Conwy
19th-century Gothic Revival mansion under active restoration since 2018; filming location for I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
Gwydir Castle
Conwy
Self-guided visits Wed/Fri/Sun in season; two B&B rooms
Manorbier Castle
Pembrokeshire
Open daily Mar-Sep; closes for weddings; castle house sleeps guests
Upton Castle
Pembrokeshire
12th/13th-century fortified manor with an attached medieval chapel, surrounded by early-20th-century gardens and an arboretum.
Castle hotels - 27 where someone else cooks
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.
England - 12
Amberley Castle
West Sussex
Medieval walls; dining open to non-residents
Appleby Castle
Cumbria
Castle hotel plus daily keep/grounds tours
Bickleigh Castle
Devon
Grade I-listed manor around a Norman motte and an 11th-century chapel; main hall demolished after Civil War slighting.
Hazlewood Castle
North Yorkshire
Medieval-core castle hotel and spa
Langley Castle
Northumberland
Daily battlements tour open to non-residents
Lumley Castle
County Durham
Dining and events open to non-residents
Lympne Castle
Kent
Built in the 1080s for the Archdeacons of Canterbury and restored 1905-12 by Sir Robert Lorimer; now a private wedding and events venue.
Oxford Castle & Prison
Oxfordshire
Malmaison hotel in former prison wing
Peckforton Castle
Cheshire
Full-scale Victorian castle hotel
Star Castle
Cornwall
16thC star fort hotel, Isles of Scilly
Thornbury Castle
Gloucestershire
Tudor castle hotel; dining open to non-residents
Walworth Castle
County Durham
16thC castle hotel near Darlington
Northern Ireland - 1
Scotland - 10
Crossbasket Castle
South Lanarkshire
16th-century tower plus mansion; luxury hotel
Dalhousie Castle Hotel
Midlothian
13th-century castle; falconry; non-residents can dine
Dornoch Castle Hotel
Highland
15th-century bishop's palace; noted whisky bar; trading normally
Fonab Castle Hotel
Perth and Kinross
Victorian baronial, Pitlochry; spa hotel
Glenapp Castle
South Ayrshire
Victorian baronial; Relais & Chateaux luxury hotel
Inverlochy Castle Hotel
Highland
Victorian baronial mansion-castle near Fort William
Leslie Castle
Aberdeenshire
17th-century Z-plan tower house built for William Forbes of Monymusk, restored by the Leslie family from 1979.
Melville Castle Hotel
Midlothian
1791 castellated mansion near Edinburgh
Stonefield Castle Hotel
Argyll and Bute
Victorian baronial overlooking Loch Fyne
Tulloch Castle Hotel
Highland
12th-century origins; Dingwall
Wales - 4
Bodelwyddan Castle
Denbighshire
Museum closed 2019; Warner bought castle 2021, adults-only hotel
Craig-y-Nos Castle
Powys
Adelina Patti's Victorian castle; adjacent country park free
Roch Castle
Pembrokeshire
Norman tower restored as luxury hotel
Ruthin Castle
Denbighshire
Hotel and spa amid genuine medieval ruins
The two ends of the scale
The cheapest bunk
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.
The grand end
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.
Booking honestly
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.
One honest note before you book
"Castle" is not a protected word. Some of the places above 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.