Castle hotels dominate top 10
Ireland and the UK dominate a European list of top castle hotels.
There were five "British Isles" establishments in the top 10 – including all of the top three – in a table compiled by travel company TripAdvisor.
Best castle hotel was Glin Castle by the River Shannon in Limerick, with Castle Stewart in Inverness, Scotland, in second place.
Third was Thornbury Castle near Bristol where Henry VIII and his second queen Anne Boleyn once stayed.
The other two British Isles castles in the top 10 are Edinburgh’s Borthwick Castle near Edinburgh, once a home to Mary Queen of Scots, and Ashford Castle at Cong in Ireland which dates from the 13th century.
One traveller who stayed at Glin Castle told TripAdvisor: “We checked out feeling like we had experienced a taste of what the FitzGerald family must have felt like for hundreds of years in their lovely castle by the River Shannon.”
The top 10 were:
1. Glin Castle, Glin, Ireland
2. Castle Stuart, Inverness, Scotland
3. Thornbury Castle, Thornbury, Gloucestershire
4. Domaine de la Tortiniere, Tours, France
5. Borthwick Castle, Edinburgh
6. Chateau de Bagnols, Lyon, France
7. Castelletto di Montebenichi, Bucine, Italy
8. Ashford Castle, Cong, Ireland
9. Parador de Jaen, Jaen, Spain
10. Hotel Castle Liebenstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
