Appleby Castle

This is beautiful castle, worth staying just as an experience. Food is not the best, I would expect but more, but exceptional.

This was an amazing place to stay, very authentic and beautiful. Our room had an updated bathroom, but even though the floor was slanted it was beautiful and comfortable. Craig is not only polite and courteous, but is an excellent cook. Peter played Piano through dinner after taking our dinner order. They both were accommodating worked to make our stay comfortable

We arrived late in the evening, not ideal but thought it was a hotel. The building was blacked out with no signage, so definitely arrive in the day time for ease if you can. The guy did upgrade us to a cottage and reminded us its a castle first (i.e. not a hotel) so keep that in mind. There are mouse traps etc in the cottage (which in the country/old houses is the norm)

Not really the "castle" experience we thought this would be. Given the cost, the castle is not welcoming, whilst I appreciate this is an old building etc. but the overall ambience is poor. No information given at check-in, long process and poor explanation as to why C/Card details need to be taken/stored (stay was already pre-paid). Room OK but not worth in excess of £200 (without breakfast, no TV etc. (again appreciate it is an old building). Told the manager we would be heading out and whether the key opened the front door, response was no but just buzz and he would let us in. Came back at 8:30pm to find the door locked and no-one around. Buzzed and called the phone number for 15 minutes without any response - was just about to give up when another guest let us in! Not a great experience and general feeling is they don't particularly cater for guests once they have your payment. Location is good though and plenty of bars/restaurants within 10 minute walk - about the only good this to say really.

Very dirty, pool condition, bad service, expensive price. no tv, no kettle, no chair. Smelly, wet, and cold. the worst experience ever.

This stay is hard to evaluate, because it was uneven. It is an experience staying in a medieval castle. We wandered around the interior to see the rooms, with old paintings, suits of armour, etc., which was interesting. The staff upgraded us from servants quarters to a cottage. The cottage was modernized with a living room and wide screen tv, a bedroom, and bathroom with a tub and walk-in shower. This was all good except for the mouse we saw in the bedroom. We had dinner in the dining room, which was kind of worn down, definitely in need of an upgrade. The food was good but not great, and it was expensive. Service was passable, but simple things like providing a bread plate and a functional candelabra were not done. The meal was fair but this was not as good as it could have been. The staff did upgrade us and helped with the internet and tv, but he was not to be found after our check-in. We never got a tour or got to climb to the top of the tower. I made a mistake in booking by one day, but I recognized and corrected that error on the internet. I asked more than once if they would waive the penalty fee for having to cancel the original registration date and rebook the correct dates, and staff replied to my emails but never responded to my request to waive the fee. In the end we were charged a fairly hefty cancellation fee, which is pretty shabby treatment. It was interesting staying in a castle and the upgrade was great, but the place was just a bit “off.”

We had a great time at Appleby Castle it was everything we expected until we arrived home when the hotel decided to charge me and my husband our check out bill twice on 2 different cards! We tried to contact the hotel several ways with no response even now after several weeks of returning I still haven't had a response from the hotel. I can say that hotels.com have been extremely helpfull in trying to get the overcharged money back for me and must say a huge thank you for that. So after having a great time in this lovely castle I will definately not be staying there again. :(

Food was not good not even fresh and price is too much with no quality.

Nice hotel, great surroundings, great theme. Just needing a slight refurb

Stunning location, amazing history and the room was very authentic. Poor communication and check in, didn’t feel welcome at all unfortunately.

We traveled two weeks in Scotland and Appleby Castle had by far the most delicious dinner. Staff was small but worked hard and swift. Castle was cozy and true to its heritage.

This place is awesome. Bit of a time warp, bit tired, but if they fixed it they would ruin it. It something out of a TV series, staff are great. its not a luxury setup, but defiantly an experience well worth having and in a lovely setting. will be back

A wonderfully atmospheric place to stay. If you have any feeling for historical surroundings you will enjoy your stay. The food was excellent (dinner and breakfast), the room was excellent, and the service excellent.

It's an old castle built in the 811 or there abouts, they maintain a formal dining room one for dinner and another for breakfast, there's also a small TV room, there's a games room on the first floor with a pool table. The bedroom was warm and big and nicely furnished, nice size bathroom and clean. I enjoyed my stay. There's a kitchen and you can use the menu to place your order.

Fantastic experience. Great, attentive staff. Stunning views on the castle grounds

I liked the room and the dining room and the meal. The renovations have not been done well and it is pretty cold in the big breakfast room. Plus parking is outside the gardens and along walk wit suit cases and need somebody to help with luggage up the stairs

I was disappointed by our stay overall. The room was fine, I enjoyed the grand decor of the castle but it needs a refresh. I think for £100/night it is expensive for the room we stayed in. (De morville) Our room had only one sidelight and it did not fit with the decor of the room and there was just a random plastic mirror in the corner of the room. Fine tuning this would make the room better. It was not a luxury stay to be honest. I was disappointed with the cleanliness - the carpet was covered in white hairs and the bathroom soap dispensers (hand and showergel) were empty. My sister stayed in Thurston Arms which I would recommend over this hotel in the area. We also ate at the Thurston Arms and the food and wine list was great.

Nice place to stay

This was our second stay here. The first time was amazing, but this time was disappointing. The first issue was that we had booked a self-catering cottage and had arrived with food. However, none of the cottages had been cleaned, and so we had to stay in rooms in the castle instead. The guy on reception was very apologetic, but the manager, Peter, seemed rather blasé about the whole thing and even seemed to think we should be grateful for getting an 'upgrade.' While the rooms were impressive, they were on the top floor, which meant a lot of stairs, and there was no fridge or anywhere to store the food we'd brought. The chef had gone home, and so there was no food available at the hotel, forcing us to go out to find somewhere to eat. It was raining heavily and was father's day. Finding either a free table or a place in the vicinity that was serving food was surprisingly difficult, but after an hour we managed it. We returned at about 8:30pm to find the gates had been shut (but not locked), forcing one of us to get out in the pouring rain to open them. This pretty much summed up the feeling we got from our stay this time: tolerated but unwelcome guests. There were good points about the place — the bathrooms were nice, and the rooms spacious. However, there was a lack of electrical sockets, and some of those were broken. We even had to move the kettle to the hearth because there was no socket next to it and the tea and coffee equipment. We won't be back a 3rd time.

Horrible hotel, service was shocking, receptionist stank of booze, was wearing a dirty shirt, room door was broken, grounds were overgrown with weeds and nettles. Bed was not well made, dirty plates and glasses stacked up unwashed, junk in the corridors, big stains on the carpets, we didn’t risk staying, we got back in our car and left. Not so much as a question from the staff as to why, no one cared a jot about the customer at all. Awful place, awful staff, awful service… we feel scammed