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.
