Castle hotels on a budget

Room rates at castle hotels change by the day, by the season and by how full the building is. A price we typed today would be wrong next week, so we do not publish one. Every card has a Check prices button that shows live rates for your dates on Booking.com.

What we can tell you is which kinds of castle stay tend to cost less, and what you give up for the saving. Star ratings help a little: a three-star castle hotel usually charges less than a five-star one, but stars measure service, not history, so read the level on each card as well.

YHA St Briavels Castle in the Forest of Dean is a youth hostel inside a royal castle built in the early 12th century on the frontier with Wales. It once produced crossbow bolts for Edward I's armies. Guests sleep inside the castle building itself, which puts it at level 5 on our Castle Authenticity Scale.

Dornoch Castle Hotel in Sutherland is a three-star hotel in the surviving tower of a bishops' palace built around 1500. Nine of its 21 bedrooms are inside that tower; the rest are in a modern extension, so choose a Castle room if the old building is the point.

Walworth Castle near Darlington, built around 1600, is another three-star true castle. Eighteen of its 32 bedrooms are inside the historic building and 14 in an adjoining annex. More are on our list of castle hotels in England.

Rooms on a castle estate usually cost less than rooms in the castle, and some come with the castle on the doorstep. They are level 2 on our scale: you sleep near the castle, not in it.

The Stable Courtyard bed and breakfast at Leeds Castle in Kent has en suite rooms in converted stable buildings, and a stay includes daytime access to the castle itself. At Muncaster Castle in Cumbria, the Coachman's Quarters have nine en suite rooms and a six-bed bunk room in the old stable yard, with a shared kitchen.

More estate stays are on our page of castle estate cottages, and our stay near a castle pages list places close to 24 famous castles.

Self-catering apartments inside a castle can work out well for a group, because the cost is split and you cook for yourselves. Lews Castle in Stornoway, built between 1847 and 1854 for Sir James Matheson, has 16 self-catering apartments on the floors above a public museum.

Glengorm Castle on the north coast of Mull, completed in 1860, lets self-catering apartments rather than hotel rooms; the Tower apartment for four is in the castle's 1860 tower. Menstrie Castle near Stirling has three apartments inside a 17th-century courtyard house.

For a larger group, renting a whole castle can compare well per person with several hotel rooms. See castles you can rent whole, sorted by how many they sleep.

Some of the lower-priced hotels with castle in their name are not castles at all. Dunster Castle Hotel, for example, is a Georgian building on Dunster's High Street, not the medieval castle above the village. That can still be a good base for visiting the real castle; it just is not a castle stay.

We label these level 0, Castle in Name Only, so you can decide knowingly. You will find them in our full list of castle hotels in the UK with the filter set to Include historic houses.

Look midweek and outside school holidays. Castles that host weddings often fill their rooms at weekends, and a Tuesday can cost less than a Saturday.

If sleeping inside the old walls is not important to you, compare the castle rooms with the rooms in a newer wing, which are sometimes priced lower. The Sleep inside the walls label on each castle page tells you if a hotel has both.

Check what is included. Breakfast, dinner packages and castle entry differ from place to place, and a rate that includes them can be better value than a lower rate that does not.