The 10 "best rated" castle hotels across the UK have been named and four popular Scottish spots are included in the list.
Now that summer is almost here, people across the country will be looking to book a getaway in the countryside. To help you decide where is worth staying, experts at train operating company South Western Railway have used TripAdvisor data to rank the top 10 highest rated castle hotels.
Fonab Castle in Perthshire, Faside Estate in Musselburgh, and Kilmartin Castle and Barcaldine Castle in Argyll are ranked second, third, seventh, and eighth respectively. With the Coronation of King Charles III coming up this weekend, if you want to live like royalty for a night or two, you can't go wrong with any of these choices.
For the ranking, the experts at South Western Railway considered a number of factors from TripAdvisor: the percentage of five-star reviews, their value score, number of reviews, and overall rating. Each hotel was then assigned an overall score out of 100.
With a rating of 80.4 out of 100, Fonab Castle is the highest-placing Scottish destination on the list. Built in 1892, the Category B listed luxury five-star hotel was found to have an average TripAdvisor score of 4.5/5 based on 3,831 reviews — the most out of any property on the list—with 77 per cent of reviews giving it a five-star rating.
Following in third place, Faside Estate is set within woodland in the East Lothian Greenbelt. While both its TripAdvisor rating and value score were found to be five out five, it only has 55 reviews on the site — though 98 per cent of them gave it a perfect score.
The first of two Argyll destinations on the list, Kilmartin Castle is a 16th-century tower house that was once owned by Clan Campbell before it was converted into a B&B in the 1990s. According to the research, it has a TripAdvisor rating and value score of five based on 47 reviews, with 91 per cent of them giving it full marks.
Finally, Barcaldine Castle is a 17th-century tower house approximately nine miles north of Oban, which dates back to 1601. It was found to have an average TripAdvisor rating of five and a value score of 4.5 based on 474 reviews—92 per cent of which gave it a score of five out of five.
Head of marketing at South Western Railway Calli Ward commented: "We’re so lucky to have such an abundance of beautiful castles steeped in history here in the UK, and even luckier that we can still experience them today. Castles are synonymous with British heritage, so what could be more a more magical way to soak up the excitement of the King’s Coronation than staying in your very own fortress!"
The UK’s 10 best-rated castle hotels
- Pentillie Castle and Estate, Devon — 80.9/100
- Fonab Castle, Perthsire — 80.4/100
- Faside Estate, Musselburgh — 80.2/100
- The Citadel, Shropshire — 79.3/100
- Roch Castle, South Wales — 78.9/100
- Swinton Estate, North Yorkshire — 78/100
- Kilmartin Castle, Argyll — 77.4/100
- Barcaldine Castle, Argyll — 77.3/100
- Mold Tower, Flintshire — 77/100
- Hever Castle, Kent — 76.5/100
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