Castle Hotel

The Castle Hotel is a large hotel with a principal three-storey, five-bay block facing east, accompanied by a lower two-storey, three-bay range to the left. It has a slate gabled roof, hipped on the right, and a rendered chimney to the left. A massive, square, roughcast chimney with vertical sunk panels and rebated corners rises from the rear north-west corner of the hipped roof. Deep eaves characterise the painted roughcast front, which also has a plinth. Hornless sashes feature, with nine panes on the second floor, twelve on the first and ground floors. A central, broad 20th-century entry is set within a reinstated three-bay portico, incorporating four Roman Doric columns, a cornice, and a flat roof.

To the left of the main block is the former Cawdor House, with a slate gabled roof of a steeper pitch and a rubble stone chimney on the ridge. It has a low plinth and a two-bay main part with two hornless sash windows on each floor. These windows have mid-19th-century hoodmoulds. The lower ground floor windows are set considerably higher than those of the main range, and the higher second-floor windows are close to the eaves. An added single bay extends to the left, matching the roofline and with a small nine-pane hornless sash window with a hoodmould, set at mid-height. The left hand return features a four-pane sash window on the second floor and two five-pane sashes on the first floor.

The Broad Street elevation is divided into three sections. The right-hand return, incorporating the large chimney, cuts through the roof. The central section, the oldest part of the building, is a three-bay, two-storey and attic range with a steeply pitched slate gabled roof and a large chimney with an external chimney breast. Two gabled dormer windows are positioned close to the eaves, and twelve-pane sash windows are present. A central half-glazed panelled door with a plain rectangular overlight provides access. The windows above and below are slightly further out than the corresponding upper outer windows. A raised plinth is also present.

A very long, one-and-a-half-storey range extends to the right, formerly used as stables and now altered. This section has three tall upper windows with sills just below the eaves, set within roughcast, bargeboarded gables. The windows feature earlier 20th-century leaded glazing with an arch head within a square shape. The sill of the second window is lower. Renewed triple casement windows are on the ground floor, directly below each upper window, along with doors to the left of the second bay and to the right of the third bay. A further triple casement, also under the eaves, is located at the far right.

Inside the main range, an early 18th-century oak staircase is located behind and to the left of the front hall. The first flight is enclosed, followed by four dog-leg flights with a moulded closed string, thick turned balusters, square newels, and heavy moulded handrails. The fifth flight is boxed in. On the first landing, an earlier 19th-century six-panel door, set in an elliptical-arched reveal, leads into the south range. Within the range along the main road, some unmoulded beams and a small 20th-century corner fireplace are present in a north-east room, which opens into the large lateral chimney.