'Not a hotel, but a family home which welcomes guests', this early Victorian fantasy-Gothic castle is in the upper Eden valley. 'You may find a piano in the bathroom, a church pew next to the loo, or an African tribal hanging above your bed,' write the owners, Simon and Wendy Bennett, who run it in informal style. Their children welcome young visitors as 'special friends': there are cats and dogs, a playground, a fort in the forest, a tree house, toys. Early suppers, baby monitors and cots are available, and there is a children's cookery school. Visitors write of the 'happy atmosphere'. 'We were invited to treat the place as our own.' It has a panelled hall, vaulted ceilings, turrets, leaded or stained-glass windows. Many bedrooms are big enough for a family, some are interconnecting. A four-poster room 'had enough space to swing several tigers; sherry and flapjacks replenished daily'. An evening meal is available by arrangement: a two-course supper is often served during the week, and at weekends there is a four-course house-party-style dinner. Dishes might include prawn cocktail with mango and crevettes; Cumbrian lamb chump, rosemary roasties, buttered spinach. Breakfast, which 'seldom kicks off before 9 am', is leisurely; it has freshly squeezed orange juice, home-made bread, real tea, eggs from the castle's resident hens. 'Great walking' from the door. (JA, PH, and others)