Overview

The paths are mainly gravel, extremely steep and feature potholes. The path from the bus stop is also awful, resulting in me wheeling down a road for 20 minutes. The staff were lovely and gave me good and helpful information on the accessibility once I arrived, but I was unable to independently navigate the entire area and I'm an active manual wheelchair user with good upper body and core strength. The cafe is lovely and has the accessible toilet but unfortunately the paths to access it are all steep, uneven and risky for wheelchair users.

Transport & Parking

Took the bus (201) which meant a 20 minute walk to the site. There was a footpath but it includes steep slopes and uneven ground (that slips under foot/wheels) as well as tree roots and other difficult to spot hazards. I ended up travelling on the road which wasn't too busy so was ok, though there are pretty steep up and downhill sections on that too. On site I saw the disabled parking which seems fine, but the path from the disabled parking to all the buildings is very steep and uneven, some areas have massive potholes and the camber is very variable.

Access

There is level access to the ground floor of the castle, the gift shop, (most of) the gardens, and cafe. This is absolutely not safe access though, specifically the path up to, and ground outside the cafe has tiled with gaps between which aren't filled in and become pretty risky in a wheelchair. The ground floor of the castle has quite narrow corridors what my 16" manual chair could fit through but only just. The paths down and within the gardens are gravel and downhill, meaning even if you lock your wheels you can still slide down the slopes uncontrolled. Inside the cafe the access is good, same with the gift shop.

Toilets

There was an accessible toilet in the cafe, the signage is very poor though and the toilet is with all the others despite the sign only saying male/female. The toilet itself is quite small and impossible for me to turn in, opening and closing the door was very tight and I have quite a small chair. The emergency cord was all the way to the floor, and grab rails secure.

Staff