Amberley Castle

Amberley Castle stands in the West Sussex village of the same name, near Arundel, and its documented history reaches back further than almost any other property in the Castle Hotels collection: the site began as a timber hunting lodge built in 1103 for Bishop Luffa of Chichester, one of the earliest recorded structures on the ground. That timber lodge was replaced by a stone hall around 1140, and the residence continued to grow in stages — expanded further around 1200 and again in the early 14th century — as it developed into what became known as the 'Summer Palace' of the Bishops of Chichester, a working ecclesiastical residence rather than a purely defensive stronghold for most of its early life.

Amberley's transformation into a genuinely fortified castle came relatively late in its medieval development. A licence to crenellate — royal permission to add battlements and defensive features, a formal legal requirement in medieval England — was granted in 1377, and the resulting fortification work between 1377 and 1382 gave the palace its walls and embattled profile. This sequence, from unfortified ecclesiastical residence to licensed fortress, is a genuinely well-documented example of how English castle architecture often responded to specific royal permissions rather than purely ad hoc building.

The castle's most notable royal association came in 1526, when Henry VIII visited Amberley specifically to seek the counsel of Bishop Sherborne on the matter of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon — a visit that places Amberley directly within the diplomatic and religious manoeuvring that would eventually lead to the English Reformation. Sherborne died in 1536 as the last bishop to reside at Amberley, and the castle was subsequently let to a succession of tenants rather than continuing as an episcopal residence. Its fortifications saw genuine use during the English Civil War: Amberley surrendered to Parliamentary forces in 1644 and was partially slighted, with its walls lowered and the roof removed from the Great Hall — a common fate for royalist-associated fortifications during and after the conflict, intended to prevent their future military use.

Amberley's modern identity as a hotel began in 1988–89 under Joy and Martin Cummings, and the property has continued to accumulate prestigious hospitality recognition since: it became a member of Relais & Châteaux in 2004, and joined Brownsword Hotels, part of the Gidleigh Collection, in 2011. The castle's award-winning gardens and 18-hole putting green add a distinctly leisure-oriented dimension to a site with such deep ecclesiastical and royal history, and the surrounding grounds have become a destination in their own right for guests and visitors alike.

For day visitors, Amberley's Queen's Room — a genuine 12th-century hall — and the Great Room welcome non-residents for dining and drinks, with reservation recommended given the property's intimate scale. Afternoon tea is served daily from 12:30 to 4pm, with several tiers available from £50 to £80 per person depending on the option chosen, including versions served with champagne. This combination of a working medieval hall, a nine-century documented history, and a genuinely accessible daily dining offer makes Amberley one of the more historically substantial non-resident dining experiences among England's castle-hotels.

The South Downs National Park surrounds Amberley on all sides, and the village itself, with its thatched cottages and position beside the River Arun, is regularly counted among the most picturesque in West Sussex. The castle's walls, still substantially intact along much of their circuit despite the Civil War slighting, remain a defining feature of the village skyline, giving visitors arriving by road or on foot from the nearby South Downs Way a dramatic first impression of the fortified palace long before reaching the entrance itself.