GUESTS AT THE magnificent Ruthin Castle Hotel should leave chats with the night porters till a sunny Sunday morning. The rambling 19th-century castle, built amid the ruins of the medieval castle, has a night life all its own – staff and guests hear footsteps on empty staircases and children crying, feel mysterious tugs on their clothing, and sometimes spot a dark figure or pallid lady who disappears into nothingness.

Locals tell of the wife of an army commander of Edward I who murdered her husband’s lover with an axe – she was beheaded and buried by the castle walls, and the grey lady still roams the corridors and battlements. Tales of medieval ghosts surround this castle, set as it is among crumbling dungeons, a whipping pit and drowning pool.

Yet with sweeping views over the grounds and surrounding hills, the hotel offers comfortable accommodation as you stroll past stags’ heads, suits of armour and family portraits. Bertie’s dining room, favourite of Queen Victoria’s eldest son who caroused here with the family and charmed its daughters, has an expansive menu in a splendid setting.

So we dined on pan seared scallops with chorizo sausage and pea puree, followed by a tender rib eye steak. Other mains include pork medallions with a pancetta jus, or ostrich fillet with dauphinoise potatoes, followed by delicate sorbet and carefully chosen dessert wines.

Ghost hunters visit the castle in droves, and hold overnight vigils too in the atmospheric Ruthin Gaol and its condemned cell, as well as in the gloriously restored Nantclwyd y Dre, Wales’ oldest timbered town house which is lovingly restored to the seven different eras of its history since 1435.

And, back in the castle, among photographs of Bertie – then Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII – with his hosts at Ruthin Castle, the castle’s long history is eerily close. As the screech of peacocks fills the night, and an icy cold draught drifts through the corridors, those tales from the locals send shivers down the spine.

Report by Carol Davis.

Ruthin Castle Hotel, Ruthin, Denbighshire, North Wales LL15 2NU. Tel: (01824) 702664; www.ruthincastle.co.uk.