Lancaster Castle

It was raining so something that involved being indoors was a good plan. We paid for the 12.00 tour and hid with an increasing number of tourists in the Cloister Walk. The clock struck 12.00 and nothing happened. After about eight minutes we looked at our watches and discovered the clock was 10 minutes fast! Shortly after that our guide appeared, mentioning that he'd been waiting for us on the astroturf in the courtyard outside.

Graham was charming and entertaining. He was extremely well-informed and informative, and passed on everything to us with a mixture of theatrical flair and sincerity. He held the interest of the entire group.

We started in an enclosed courtyard, headed into the prison, went through various areas including the old cells, the two courtrooms and the hanging room. For those to whom it is important there were a number of rooms on the tour where it was possible to sit down. The tour is mostly indoors and finishes outside the castle a short distance uphill from the entrance.

Tremendously interesting and entertaining, and definitely worth doing.

Living locally and afew years since we took the tour, decided to occupy a wet day of half term.
It was disappointing. The tour guide was more interested in enforcing a no chewing gum policy and performing the don'ts of the tour than anything else. He managed to parrot out some facts in each room in a dull fashion. It was far from entertaining. Being pretty knowledgeable of the castle and its history I found it poor. It cost twenty pound for three of us and I will not be taking the tour again. The no 1 stop sign in the face of a child at the end of a corridor like he was a car approaching a junction was the highlight of my tour.

Even during Covid 19 times the staff working in Lancaster castle was very helful and welcoming. Cameron gave us a lovely and interesting tour around the outside of the castel for free (since the inside visits are unavailable at the moment), was veery friendly and did not mind us asking tons of question. Definitely recommend visiting this lovely place no matter how much time you have in Lancaster - the whole guided tour around the outside portion of the castle will take you maximum 20 mintes. Definitely worth it!

You can’t wander round on your own so you have to go on a guided tour which isn’t an issue if you’re told on the website before you go. The tour was very good and lasted about an hour and half but unfortunately you can’t stay long enough in any place to read the information around which was disappointing. The majority of the castle is closed including the gift shop so there’s not much to see. Overall I was disappointed that I paid £8 per adult and £12 to park at the train station. May be worth waiting until more of it opens if you don’t want a wasted journey.

We had a guided tour of the castle that lasted about 45 minutes.
We did not get to see much of the inside of the castle which was used as a prison up until 2011 but we did get inside to see the magnificent criminal and county court chambers.
Getting to and from the courts illustrated how much money needs to be spent on the complex to make it a top-class tourist attraction but nevertheless our guide, Christopher, kept us enthralled throughout - he was most knowledgeable about the castle in particular and history in general (a history graduate ?)

This tour is very grim in some ways - but well worth the modest entrance fee. The castle is still a Crown Court and in the past has been a prison, an asylum and a defensive site dating back to the Romans. ‘Witches’ were tried and executed here; the place is full of examples of just how unpleasant one human being can be to another.
Our guide was Cameron, the party was just four people, and he made it absorbing and interesting. Highly recommend. (PS due to its status as a Court, photography not allowed in certain interiors)

If you are interested in history and particularly modern history (the castle isn't all as old as you might expect) and a variety of use, this is the place for you. The guided tour is recommended and excellent value (£8 at the time of writing) and our guide Jack was humerous and very knowledgeable. The tour we did was not suitable for wheelchairs, check with the venue for info. The various ages of use over the centuries are fascinating including its uses as a prison and the history of the trial of the Pendle Witches. The cafe was okay, but don't expect full meals, cake, sarnies and beverages only during our visit. Photography not allowed inside because this is a working Crown Court building. See the old original cells and the more modern cells from HMP Lancaster Castle in use into the 2000s. Recommended visit.

Three of us went on the tour this morning .
Very reasonably priced.

Our Tour Guide ,Eleanor, was well informed , obviously passionate about the History of the Castle and very professional.

The tour lasted just over an hour and I would thoroughly recommend this if you are visiting Lancaster. It is also worth having a wander around the Courtyards after the Guided Tour.

Visited as a couple, the courtyard now looks well and will be a great entertaining space.
The cakes looked good and so did the sandwiches. We had a toastie which was nice and 2 cakes, a large cookie and a rose petal brownie.
The cookie was OK and the rose petal brownie was way to fancy for its own good with rose petals all over the top of it.
There wasn’t much other selection of cakes and whilst the cafe looked nice inside there was a distinct lack of places to sit and especially no where to sit in comfort.
We will probably not visit the cafe again unless there is some kind of event on.

This review is solely about the cafe. Visited today and we were very impressed with the new look of the courtyard but although the castle looked fairly quiet the cafe was full. Bearing in mind it is only January, we witnessed people just walking out because of lack of tables. We had to sit on ‘trendy’ stools with a ledge for a table. Although we were happy to do this I can’t imagine what will happen as the tourist season begins, there just isn’t enough room in the new cafe. I think I counted about 12 tables inside. Yes, it looks great but visitors are going to want more than fancy coffees. What about children visiting? I may be wrong but as far as I could see you would struggle to feed a hungry child with anything, apart from a very fancy sandwich. Surely a tourist attraction as amazing as Lancaster Castle should cater for the tourist. I think there will be tourists visiting who think the castle itself fabulous but will be let down by lack of facilities. The service was extremely slow, it took about half an hour after ordering three coffees for them to arrive. Also I agree with other reviews that have commented on the lack of toilets, two ladies plus one disabled. Can’t comment on the gents. Things need a bit of sorting in time for the main season for our lovely city attraction.