Overview

We were invited to spend the day at Glenapp Castle. This involved lunch in the hotel and dinner in the new Azalea restaurant in the walled garden. The food was ok but mass catering is always iffy.

Transport & Parking

The car park is level tarmac and right outside the hotel entrance. There are no designated disabled spaces apparent.

Access

There are no signs that I could see and the hotel is difficult to access if you have mobility challenges. There are two steps into the hotel entrance and then a flight of steps up to the first floor restaurant. There is a lift, but to reach this, you have to enter at the kitchens and make a sharp turn along a narrow smelly corridor and go through another door. This was unpleasant and difficult because the narrow passageway was often cluttered with deliveries and so on for the kitchens or crowded with staff milling about. The new azalea restaurant is in the lovely walled garden which is a couple of hundred yards from the hotel. The garden paths are reasonably level, fine gravel with one slight step to reach the door of the glasshouse. From there it’s all one level including the toilets, but with the exception of the rear function room which is down four stone steps.

Toilets

There is no accessible toilet inside the hotel and there are no toilets at all on the same floor as the hotel restaurant. Hotel toilets are at entrance level, accessed either down the staircase from the restaurant or up two steps from car park level. At the azalea restaurant in the glasshouse there is an accessible toilet but the staff had to wedge the very heavy door open leading to the toilets because I couldn’t open it.

Staff

Staff were pleasant and helpful but at times very busy. Staff at the glasshouse were particularly friendly and thoughtful.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Glenapp is a lovely location within a large estate. It used to have a mobility scooter available for guests which was excellent for getting around the grounds. Unfortunately it is no longer available. There are various issues with the age of the building and the way original features have been retained that make it more challenging, such as difficult to grip doorknobs making it hard to open doors and original high cisterns with pull chains making it hard to flush the toilet.