A stay in a castle hotel, for those who find themselves intrigued by the environment that the people of the 9th and 10th centuries up through the 14th centuries and beyond lived within, can be a fine way to immerse one’s self in a fascinating part of British (and European) history. This was a time when the island of Britain was undergoing great upheaval and strife at various points, with Saxons being expelled by conquering Normans, and with Welsh princes striving to keep the English of the medieval period from asserting rule over what they believed to be their lands. There’s an abundance of castles throughout the United Kingdom, by the way, and a number of them have been converted to castle hotels.

This isn't to say that one will be forced to live in a cold, dank and dark room with a smoky fireplace and slits in the stone walls for windows (all the better to fire arrows from them and not receive arrows back in return). Rather, many a castle hotel has been restored to a magnificent state and usually serves as a luxury facility. A good example of this kind is Thornbury Castle, in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, England.

 

The castle itself is probably better described as an early example of a Tudor-era country manor, and construction on the first began in 1511 for the 3rd Duke of Buckingham. It is not actually a fortress, which is what many a castle in the medieval period was, but it is probably interesting nonetheless, because Henry VIII and his wife, Anne Boleyn occupied it for 10 days in 1535.

 

In terms of all the best castle hotels in the United Kingdom, England, Scotland and Wales seem to feature many more than in other areas. Another great example of one of these facilities is Amberly Castle, which is located in North Arundel in West Sussex, England. This particular castle had been constructed to serve as the home of the local Bishops of Chichester, and it's regularly voted among the Top 20 hotels of leisure in polls that survey people who stay in facilities such this.

 

Keep in mind that most of these hotels are 4 or 5-star rated, meaning that they usually don't come cheap. But for those who want to dine and take their leisure in true luxury while seeing true history all about them, there is certainly much to recommend considering looking at a castle hotel for all that it can help to do to put a person in mind of the era in which these castles were built.