Bickleigh Castle

Cream tea voucher - EXTREMELY TERRIBLE. So firstly I would like to say, we aren’t even that upset anymore as it was that bad it became laughable. My husband and I got gifted a cream tea voucher for Bickleigh castle. Firstly, the grounds themselves were very poor . They look tired, everything was overgrown, stagnant water, and the entire place definitely looked a lot better on the internet. Trying to find the ‘café’ was difficult. No sign postage anywhere and we ended up just following the other poor souls that were also subjected to the terrible tea. When we all eventually found the ‘café’, it was like they had no clue we were arriving. No staff to be seen, only 4 huge round tables with multiple chairs on, so no individual tables for the tea. My husband rang a bell to which we were greeted by a young lad who again, looked surprised that we were there or as if we’d torn him away from his bed (it was midday). Everyone was just stood around not knowing what the heck was going on. He asked what drinks we’d all like and took everyone’s orders. We just stood and waited as nothing was clear on what we should do/where we should go as the tables were all shoved close together, as if they weren’t even meant to be sat on. The tables looked like it was used for a wedding the night before. Our cream tea was then brought out…. The scones themselves were extremely stale, dry and not very pleasant to eat. Tasting like the end piece of bread from a loaf that was made 2 weeks ago. We arrived at 12 and were told the guided tour of the grounds wasn’t until 1430. We drank our tea and coffee and we left. Had a brief look at the castle (which is definitely made out to be something it’s not), realised how terrible the experience was and we left. We are most sad about wasting the voucher on an experience that was quite frankly terrible and below the expected standard for what we paid (credit on the voucher used). Would not recommend the cream tea to anyone. Extremely poor.

2 months ago · via Google

Lovely place but not really set up for day visitors small garden very overgrown in places and only takes about 15 mins to walk round the tour of the castle is at 2.30 so if you arrive to early your just sat round waiting.On the upside the cream tea was lovely.

2 months ago · via Google

Can't comment on the rooms as we were gifted a voucher for cream tea and tour. Can only say it was like Faulty Towers. Arrived at 1230 as arranged for cream tea to be greeted hurriedly by a rude woman who went on about a conference that was going on, and who wasn't really interested in our well being. Eventually found a very hot sunroom where we were given dry scones and just enough cream and jam. We eventually found out that the tour was not for another 2 hours. We wandered around the somewhat tatty neglected gardens then decided to leave. Pretty setting, but wouldn't recommend.

2 months ago · via Google

Did the tour , it was really interesting and definitely worth seeing. All staff were super friendly. Thank you. 🙏🏻

2 months ago · via Google