Amberley Castle

About the venue

A 12th-century castle hotel near Arundel, still enclosed by its 60ft curtain wall, with 19 bedrooms and a portcullis that is lowered every night. Weddings, private dining and meetings take place in the Queen's Room and the Norman Great Room, and the whole castle can be booked for exclusive use.

Every night the staff at Amberley Castle lower a working portcullis. The castle near Arundel is still completely enclosed by its 60ft curtain wall, with a twin-tower gatehouse on the south side.

The story starts in 683 AD, when Caedwalla, King of Wessex, gave the land to Bishop Wilfrid. Bishop Luffa built a timber hunting lodge here in 1103, and over the next 400 years resident bishops turned it into a fortified manor with battlements. During the Civil War it was a royalist stronghold, and in 1643 Cromwell's men knocked 20 to 30 feet off the walls.

Today it is a Relais & Châteaux hotel with 4 AA Red Stars and 3 AA Rosettes, owned by Andrew and Christina Brownsword. Dinner is served in the Queen's Room, under a 12th-century vaulted ceiling with an open fire. The other dining room is the Great Room, a Norman hall from 1165 with tall windows and oak floors.

There are 19 individually designed bedrooms, each named after a Sussex castle. Some sit within the Tower House Mews, and the Gatehouse Suites occupy a 17th-century dairy just outside the walls.

The grounds have two lakes, a tennis court, a croquet lawn and an 18-hole putting course. You can climb the ramparts for views over the South Downs, and the South Downs Way passes close by.

Weddings, private dining and meetings all use the Queen's Room and the Great Room. Larger parties can take the entire castle on an exclusive-use basis.

The hotel also runs spoon carving and coracle-making sessions in the grounds, where guests build a small round boat by hand and then paddle it. Amberley station is a ten-minute walk away, with direct trains to London.

12th-century castle inside a 60ft curtain wall

Working portcullis lowered every night

Relais & Châteaux, 4 AA Red Stars, 3 AA Rosettes

19 bedrooms, each named after a Sussex castle

Dining in the vaulted Queen's Room and 1165 Great Room

Weddings from £2,000; exclusive use from £25,000

Day delegate rate from £80; 24-hour rate from £355

Ten minutes' walk from Amberley station