My other half took me here as a suprise for 2 nights over my birthday. We stayed in the Dairy Apartment. We were welcomed by staff and shown around our appartment and all the areas we had access to after the castle was closed to the public.

During our stay at the appartment, we found it so relaxing. There was so much to see in the apartment itself and we liked the guest book of other guests' experiences although forgot to write in this ourselves. We thought the appartment looked and pleasantly smelt very authentic and almost in a different time. Loved the bathroom with the old original dairy shelves and tiles.The kitchen had everything you could need... I'd taken kitchen roll, cleaning products etc expecting there not to be any and didn't need them, they took up handbag space!! We needed oil, butter, milk etc for cooking - there isn't anything more than tea/coffee there.

We took some wine to a communal room which has the dungeons in, having been told by the lady who showed us round that we could do this. We took loads of photos and poked our heads into the dungeons, but were far too scared to go in before the night watch man came up and told us off for being in the communal areas and also for having the alcohol. It was only around 9pm. We laughed it off and apologised then went back to the appartment and I lit the log fire in the living room and got the sofa bed out in front of this to watch TV - fabulous! We fell asleep on the sofa bed, but almost cooked in the heat from the fire, so went down to the double room at about 2am. There was something really spooky about the twin room, so we kept that door closed!! (We also left a lantern on in our room!!) I would have really liked a DVD player within the room, as there are only the 4 channels and the old 'fat' style TV, however, we both agreed a more modern TV would look out of place. The DVD player would've been useful on our chill out night snuggled in front of the fire.

The next day we cooked a full English breakfast (hangover cure!) before travelling out to see the cattle, which we enjoyed. We also had a good wander around the castle. It seemed really quick, as we both tend not to read a lot, just look at things, so could easily have spent longer. Found that there was plenty of space in each room so you could take your time to look at everything you wanted without a queue building up behind you. We spent ages milling about the gardens and the outer castle grounds following a steam and saw some wildlife, which was great.

Unfortunately nothing out of the ordinary happened during our stay, although it certainly felt very spooky as if there were other people in the room and I didn't like wandering around the appartment alone, often finding myself pretending not to be scared / talking louding to the other half as if to warn any ghosts I was coming as I entered rooms and turned corners. Didn't get any orbs on our photos :-(

Despite this, we had a great stay and can't wait to return. The is no mobile phone reception within the rooms and the remoteness and quiet of the place was an appreciated change and gave us some good quality time together. Romantic even!!

The BEST bit is that my other half proposed to me whilst in the appartment... then I had no phone reception to tell anyone after I'd accepted, d'oh!!