Appleby Castle - Appleby-in-Westmorland

Catherine J.

From beginning to end, this place is truly enchanting! The castle exudes charm, and the staff is incredibly welcoming. Dining here is an experience not to be missed; the food is absolutely delicious!||||Although the castle could use a bit of tender loving care, embracing its character only deepens your affection for this magical spot. You'll fall in love with it!||||We stayed in the Evidence Room, which featured a beautifully carved four-poster bed. It also had an ensuite bathroom, so we didn't have to wander across the hallway as mentioned in other reviews.

Gayna Y.

I am writing to provide feedback regarding my recent stay at Appleby Castle, as I believe it is important to share my experience.

Unfortunately, my visit did not meet my expectations, primarily due to the unavailability of advertised facilities. The hot tub and gym, which were significant factors in my choice to stay, were not accessible during my visit. Additionally, I found it challenging to locate staff for assistance; there seemed to be no personnel available at the reception or in the bar area.

I also encountered some inconvenience with the tea and coffee facilities in my room, which were lacking milk. Despite my efforts to find assistance, I was unable to locate any staff to help with this matter.

Given the rate of £145 for my overnight stay, I was disappointed with the overall experience and felt it did not provide the value I had anticipated

Amy C.

We stayed at Appleby Castle in November 2024 for the second time and had an amazing time!||The place, furniture, surroundings and whole atmosphere is just beautiful and the building is so incredibly well maintained as it was intended to be instead of being modernised like a lot of places are today. This really works in its favour as an incredibly unique and thoroughly enjoyable experience.||We had supper and breakfast in the amazing dining hall and the food was absolutely wonderful. The chef (I think Craig?) was so lovely and helpful, nothing was too much trouble.||We also visited the Norman keep which is a fantastically restored attraction absolutely packed with history and amazing views!||Having read a lot of the reviews, it‘s important to remember that Appleby is quite different to your average hotel resort - it’s a proper historic castle with so much character and atmosphere - enjoying this history should be the reason why someone books to go here.||We’ll be back! 🙂 thank you for a fab night away!

Kim T.

We had a couple of fantastic nights at the castle. The food was lovely. The host and hostess were absolutely brilliant. Thoroughly enjoyed our stay Applebee town is a lovely character place castle and walk a lovely. I would recommend this to anybody beautiful place.

James G.

Stayed here overnight as a stop off on our way back from Scotland.
The rooms are pretty decent with a good bed. Unfortunately the soundproofing is not so good as we were woken in the night by slamming doors and stomping down the corridor adjacent to our room.
We had an evening meal and the food was fantastic, really fresh well cooked food.

Rachael L.

Our overnight stay was wonderful. The food was delicious, our room was divine and the castle absolutely enchanting.

Thank you Mrs Nightingale and staff, we hope to visit again soon.

James M.

We booked a 3 night stay in No. 1 cottage at the end of August, arriving on Friday evening at 11pm after a long journey. The hotel was aware of our late arrival. We left on Saturday morning before breakfast. We tried to discuss our concerns with reception, who were less than helpful. We found a total of 2 staff on site, neither of whom were able to discuss a complaint or direct us to anyone else at all, let alone management. We followed their advice to send an email to their reservations address. We are yet to hear back. We had paid in full, in advance. Despite no refund, partial refund, or other compensation or apology, we still think we made the right decision to abandon our stay.||Our favourite memories of Appleby castle will always be:|The apparent spider sanctuary in the living room.|The thrill ride spiral staircase, with more screws missing than present.|“Shower slice” a game where you make yourself slippery wet in the shower and then try not to rip yourself open on the badly broken bath fascia as you get out.|Sofa jenga - unfortunately we seemed to have arrived after this game had finished, but it seems to involve taking apart the sofa, throwing the component cushions at it and leaving them however they fall (upside down and backwards in this case).|And finally, the lovely fire we couldn’t make from the old decking board and huge lump of Christmas tree from the log store. We’ll always regret not being able to poison ourselves with those fumes while we shared our tea in the 2 filthy mugs supplied between the five of us.||It wasn’t all bad. We thought we didn’t have enough bedding, but the guy at reception told us it was in a cupboard upstairs. He didn’t tell us the cupboard was locked and the sofa bed was buckled anyway. So we can’t complain about the bedding - we never found it. And sharing the fewer than expected beds brought us closer as a family.||We’re still wondering if that’s wine or blood by the sink. Maybe a previous guest had a shower. Anyway, I guess we were lucky to see it through all the spiders.

Lance H.

Awesome experience.
Staying a real castle that's updated enough to be comfortable in the 21st century without losing authenticity.
Food was befitting the aristocratic lineage.
Superbly situated for the Lakes and North East.
Highly recommend.