The Castle Hotel in Bishop's Castle is king with accolade
A Shropshire inn has been recognised as one of the top places to stay in England and Wales.
The Castle Hotel in Bishop's Castle has been named as the newest addition to just 22 'Great Inns of Britain' – a list that aims to recognise the cream of the crop of hostelries offering "fabulous food, gorgeous rooms and glorious locations".
The list has been going for 20 years, but has recently announced two new additions, with the inn in the heart of Bishop's Castle bagging a place as well as Y Talbot in Tregaron, mid-Wales.
Henry Hunter, owner of The Castle Hotel, said: "It puts us with the top one per cent or fewer of the best inns in the country, so it's very, very pleasing. Now we just have to work hard to keep up the high standards – we're in there with some of the most famous inns in the country, those with a whole range of national and international awards, so we're very privileged.
"We're called a hotel, because we have been since the 18th century, but an inn is really exactly what we are.
"We are not a B&B and we are not really a hotel, we are an inn."
He said the difference was that, whereas hotels tended to be formal and strictly focussed on their residents, closed off from the outside world, an inn prided itself on being open to all and at the heart of the community. He said: "We have very lively bars where people can come in, have a drink, have a meal and use it as a base to explore the area. It's less formal and more open, more casual.
"We were delighted to be invited to join the Great Inns of Britain as it represents our exact ethos of what we are about – a historic building with the highest standards of modern hospitality and food coupled with traditional and characterful bars still serving locally brewed real ale and ciders to all who come."
The Castle Hotel has 12 rooms, three bars, a restaurant and what was described as "one of the finest hotel gardens in Shropshire".
