High stone walls and a deep moat; crenellated towers for shooting arrows from or pouring boiling oil onto unwelcome visitors; a sense of history so strong, it’s almost palpable; plus a good restaurant and decent Wi-Fi. These are a few things that one can expect from a proper castle-hotel, as opposed to a resort built to resemble a grand country home with faux battlements. And from Skibo in Scotland to the regal Schönburg on the Rhine, the 10 castle-hotels included on this list are all the real deal. That means they have rooms decorated with antiques, grounds that stretch for acres and kitchens showcasing the food of the region. The Wi-Fi isn’t always superfast in buildings dating back over many centuries, but there is a positive side to this. Being prevented from staring at your phone or laptop for hours frees you to read the guidebook or historic novel you’ve brought along or just daydream yourself back a millennium. Europe is scattered with ancient fortifications that have been imaginatively repurposed. In an era when building design seems evermore uniform, the majestic quirkiness of a castle-turned-hotel feels all the more welcome. And as a place to enjoy a touch of history with butler service, and to celebrate in memorable surroundings alongside giving the children a thrilling experience, there are few better spots to choose from. So let’s to the battlements.
Skibo Castle, Scotland
At the top of the lot has to be Skibo – over the top, actually, and ridiculously expensive, but it ticks every castle-related box conceivable. History it has in shedloads, with a story or famous name behind every stag’s head gazing out from oak-panelled walls. Crenellations, comfort and space are aplenty, too, with 22 rooms in the castle plus 11 lodges on the surrounding estate, which stretches across 7,500 acres of Highland scenery. Famous connections are numerous. Scottish-born American steel magnate-turned-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was responsible for embellishing the interior to a state of baronial magnificence, after buying the castle in 1897. Guests range from King Edward VII and Rudyard Kipling to Bill Clinton and Robbie Williams, while Madonna and Guy Ritchie got married here in 2000. You’re woken at 9am each morning by a bagpiper marching around the grounds, and after porridge or kippers you can shoot, fish, play golf on the world-class course, or tennis on a clay court, meet the falconer, take flying lessons, go to the beach at Dornoch, ride – with miniature horses for children – or disappear into the lakeside spa.
All-inclusive double rooms cost from Dh9,385 per night. Visitors are allowed one stay, before they have to join the Carnegie Club for Dh40,450 per year, plus a one-off joining fee of about Dh119,000. For more information, visit carnegieclub.co.uk
Hôtel de la Cité Carcassonne - MGallery By Sofitel, France
This is the only hotel inside the ramparts of the medieval citadel of the Unesco World Heritage-listed town of Carcassonne. By day, the narrow cobblestoned streets are packed with tourists, so when the crowds have gone at night, it feels enchanting to have the place to yourself. One warning: if you’re driving, you should make sure you get instructions from the hotel about where to park before your arrival. Cars aren’t allowed into the town, and if you don’t know where the hotel van’s pickup point is, you may arrive in a fuming rage. Breakfast is an all-out banquet, but if you want to avoid dishing out the high prices charged for dinner at chef Jérôme Ryon’s La Barbacane restaurant, Michelin star notwithstanding, you can find somewhere to eat in the square. Go in spring, summer or early autumn, when it’s warm enough to sit out on the broad stone terraces, drinking in the views of the ramparts, red-roofed town and rolling countryside beyond. With its drawbridge and moat, the 21-room Château de Bagnols (chateaudebagnols.com) outside Lyon is a close contender for the title of the most romantic castle-hotel in France, but Carcassonne’s lively yet fairy-tale-like setting gives it the edge.
Double rooms cost from Dh815 per night, including breakfast. For more information, visit accorhotels.com
Chateau Herálec, Czech Republic
Anyone who has stayed at the Four Seasons or Mandarin in Prague will recognise the sense of excellence and obsessive attention to detail that have also propelled this castle-hotel into the upper echelons of five-starriness. It’s a great discovery, this 11th-century property in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. The boutique hotel is a 90-minute drive from Prague – easy enough to tack on to a long weekend in the Czech capital. All 19 suites and rooms are spacious and elegantly furnished, with views across the surrounding parklands to the forest beyond. Slow-cooked regional dishes pack the menu in the Honoria restaurant, with herbs from the gardens used as liberally in the kitchens as in the on-site Spa by L’Occitane. With an emphasis throughout on local provenance, it’s no surprise to discover that even the glasses in the restaurant are handmade locally, as are the soft wool blankets on the beds, woven by the sixth generation of the Kubák family of weavers, and available (and irresistible) to buy. Giant pumpkins reared by the gardener, James, make autumn stays here especially colourful – you arrive to find the driveway flanked by the enormous orange fruit, and discover pumpkin soups, stews and desserts on the menu.
Double rooms cost from Dh738 per night. For more information, visit chateauheralec.com
Luttrellstown Castle, Ireland
Owing to its often violent history, the green and lovely country of Ireland has more than its fair share of castle-hotels bristling with battlements. While the Ashford, Dromoland and Adare properties are more well known, for anyone who wants to take over a castle in its entirety, the 12-bedroom, 15th-century Luttrellstown is the obvious choice. Now run as a corporate and wedding venue as well as a resort, the 540-acre estate includes an 18-hole golf course, and it’s only six kilometres outside of Dublin, so easy to reach. A roll call of the rich, famous and royal stayed here in the castle’s days as a private home, including Princess Grace of Monaco, American President Ronald Reagan and performer Fred Astaire. Plus, the flamboyance of the Beckhams’ wedding in 1999, involving two thrones, certainly out-glammed anything Queen Victoria did during her two visits to Luttrellstown, in 1849 and 1900. The sports and activities usually arranged for corporate guests adapt easily for families or groups of friends who want to do more than loll in lazy splendour. Tai chi, painting, cooking, falconry, archery, quad biking, clay-pigeon shooting, even blind-fold driving: it’s an appropriately grand mix.
Hiring all 12 rooms costs from Dh21,245 per night, including breakfast, For more information, visit luttrellstowncastle.com
Glenapp Castle, Scotland
Now run as an opulent 20-bedroom Relais & Châteaux hotel, Glenapp Castle is 112 kilometres from Glasgow. With its turrets and crenellations, and surrounded by 5,250 acres of woodland and forest on the wild Ayrshire coast of Scotland, the property fulfils all possible castle-related fantasies. Views encompass the Mull of Kintyre, the Isle of Arran and, on a super-clear day, even the coast of Northern Ireland. Rooms on the ground floor look out over the gardens, while from first- and second-floor rooms, you can see, hear and smell the sea, so falling asleep on a windy night feels ridiculously romantic. This isn’t a place to stay by the fire, tempting though that may be, because that would be to neglect the hotel’s great location for field sports: pheasant shooting, salmon and trout fishing on the River Stinchar, fishing, archery, as well as hiking along the Ayrshire Coastal Path or in the Galloway Forest Park. And one of the most fun things, if you’re up for the £1,117 (Dh5,550) hire charge, is to charter the hotel’s motor boat, a 10-metre rig for 10 people, and take a picnic to enjoy on the Isle of Arran (literally, “Scotland in miniature”).
Double rooms cost from Dh1,765 per night, including breakfast and dinner. For more information, visit glenappcastle.com
Castello di Pavone, Italy
Given that until its unification in 1861, the country was a collection of small warring principalities, Italy is dotted with castles looming over hilltops up and down the peninsula. Castello Banfi Il Borgo, Castello di Velona, Castello di Petroia, Castello di Monterone and Castle Fragsburg all compete with Castello di Pavone for the title of the grandest and most romantic. Still, for sheer hulking magnificence, this property, located only an hour away from Milan, pretty much outdoes all its rivals. Built on a hilltop with the requisite 360-degree views that all castles required in the days when they were repelling rather than welcoming strangers, di Pavone partly dates back to the mid-800s, while the fortifications were added in the 1300s. Although there are only 27 bedrooms in the main house, the adjoining public rooms can accommodate up to 300 people. A well-placed water feature, called the Fountain of the Mysteries, and the numerous ramparts and courtyards all provide thrillingly lit selfie backdrops. This would also make an inspiring spot to take over for a wedding.
Double rooms cost from Dh530 per night. For more information, visit castlellodipavone.com
Hever Castle, England
The double-moated, 60-foot-walled childhood home of Anne Boleyn, the second of King Henry VIII’s ill-fated wives and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, Hever Castle in Kent dates back to 1270. Converted into a manor house in 1462, it was owned by the Bolyen family until 1530, but had fallen into disrepair by 1903, when American millionaire William Waldorf Astor bought it and set about restoring it to its former glory. Today it operates primarily as a conference centre and visitor attraction, starring mazes and museum items, such as the lock Henry VIII travelled with to fit on the door of wherever he happened to be staying. Guests, however, can stay safe in one of the 28 bedrooms in the Astor or Boleyn wings, or in the four-bedroom Tudor-style Medley Court. The bedrooms are all different, but most feature panelled walls, four-poster beds and window seats with a roll-top bath in a modern bathroom. There is an atmospheric billiards room, and the Tudor Suite serves large and lavish breakfasts – from porridge with cream and brown sugar, to kippers and eggs Benedict. As ever, in castles open to the public, the fun is in roaming the grounds once everyone else has disappeared.
Double rooms cost from Dh558 per night. For more information, visit hevercastle.co.uk
Solar do Castelo, Portugal
Within the walls of São Jorge Castle, this massive fortified complex looms above Lisbon, and has recently been turned into a modern-looking creative quarter and shopping destination. As a retreat from the city, it’s an absolute delight – quiet, calm, and decorously run with that gravity the Portuguese achieve so adeptly. Although the husk of the building – two storeys wrapped around a graceful central courtyard – dates back to the 18th century, the hotel has been thoroughly renovated. Its 20 rooms all have en-suite bathrooms, excellent air conditioning and double-glazing, as well as satellite television and Wi-Fi. That is not something one can say of its rival: the medieval Pousada Castelo de Óbidos. Like Spain’s parador scheme, Portugal’s pousada programme embraces historic buildings repurposed as hotels. Although Pousada Óbidos gives you more of a sense of travelling back a few centuries, where the Solar feels indisputably modern, this member of the Historic Hotels of Europe group is the most cheering example of how architects can work in a historic setting and produce something contemporary yet mindful of the past.
Double rooms cost from Dh685 per night, including breakfast. For more information, visit solardocastelo.com
Schönburg Castle, Germany
You know exactly what you are getting when you stay here because, with typical Germanic efficiency, the castle-hotel’s website has photos of each of its 25 rooms, with a list of its amenities (including a trouser press) and the price range. The most romantically beautiful of the many castles dotted among the forests and vineyards fringing the Rhine, Schönburg is set on a low hillside above the medieval town of Oberwesel. The castle dates back to the 10th century and was thoroughly renovated in the 1800s. It is immaculately maintained and has excellent seasonal restaurants, endearingly called Knights’ Room, Squires’ Room and Gobelin Room, as well as two terrace options. Schönburg makes an especially good place to treat children to the thrill of staying in a castle. With its twisting back staircases, hidden terraces, unexpected corners and gardens with hidden tree houses, the property is incredibly satisfying to explore. You may well not leave the grounds until you check out. And as each room is different, even getting back to your quarters each night can be an adventure. Rooms 22 and 23, for instance, the highest in the castle, on the fourth and fifth floors, are reachable only via a spiral staircase. Room 24 has a bathroom hidden behind a bookcase. And perhaps best of all, Room 25 is designed like a miniature house within the castle, with a staircase connecting the sitting room and bedroom.
Double rooms cost from Dh1,172, including breakfast. For more information, visit hotel-schoenburg.com
Parador de Cardona, Spain
An easy drive from Barcelona, this is ideal for a one-night stay. Opened as a hotel in 1976, it is arguably the most splendid member of Spain’s arador programme, set up by the state to restore ancient buildings and convert them into economically mindful luxury hotels. Parador de Cardona’s oldest arenas date back to the ninth century. The 54-room hilltop castle-hotel looks down to the Catalonian town and river of Cardona. Breakfasting in the early morning sunshine on the terrace here gives one a profound sense of history, as does a tour of the nearby salt mine. As is the case with Spain’s other thrilling castle-hotels – Zafra, Alarcón and Alcaniz – it is safest to book the best room in de Cardona. This is because the constraints of budget and building mean general accommodation options within parador properties can often be sparse. Still, for a chance to stay in such a historic building, the austere antique furnishings and hard-tiled floors are worth putting up with, and greatly preferable to the inappropriately thorough makeover a private hotel chain might have imposed.
Double rooms cost from Dh853 per night, including breakfast and dinner. For more information, visit parador.es
