Castle Hotels

This five-star getaway is riddled with charm and baroque flourishes. It’s the attention to detail that makes the difference: amazing plaster flourishes, rare 19th Century porcelain, and tapestries decorate your room. All the furniture is antique or made by traditional artisans - the four-poster beds are hand-carved from oak, ebony, …

The legendary Chateau de Bagnols is the kind of place you thought only existed in fairy stories. Set in a tiny village this historic Chateau has towers and turrets, a drawbridge, and a moat. The castle has an ‘old’ and ‘new’ area. The ‘old’ area is from the 13th Century …

Part of the hilariously named French Lick Resort, West Baden Springs, is a hotel extravaganza. When it was opened in 1902, dumb-struck locals called it the ‘8th Wonder of the World’, and its mineral water baths were said to cure everything apart from credulity. In 1917, an incredible renovation saw …

Unusually for a luxury châteaux hotel out in the countryside, The Fairmont Hotel in Banff Springs was always designed as a hotel and has been housing paying guests since its creation in 1888. Apart from an unfortunate incident in 1926 involving a raging inferno and complete destruction, it has always …

This was once a convent. Built in the 16th Century, the cloisters and passageways once echoed with the sound of rosary beads and prayers. Today, it is the building that contemplates on a rock overlooking the sea while, inside, the residents relax. Thousands of religious hours have been worn into …

Not long ago, it was just another ruined castle. Now beautifully restored, it sits in 10 hectares of land and a historic vineyard. The old outbuildings have been incorporated into the new design to create a modern complex making the most of the historic architecture. In 1163 a crusading knight, …

‘I must just observe that the village of Cintra in Estremadura is the most beautiful in the world’. Not my words but the words of Lord Byron, one of the world’s dashing romantic poets. The romantic style of Sintra Castle Hotel is typical of 18th Century Royal residences. You enter …

Luckily this isn’t Walworth Castle in London which is a real, non-converted prison. No this is Walworth in County Durham, one of England’s most rural and beautiful counties. Parts of the castle date back to the 12th Century when a string of fortifications were erected around the country by the …

‘And I sentence you to be taken from here to Oxford Castle Prison where you will be hung from the neck until dead’ - is what guests of the Oxford Castle Prison would have heard before arriving at this imposing building. You, however, are far more likely to hear the …