Bickleigh Castle takes corporate groups of roughly 16 to 40 delegates for seminars, board meetings, training days and dinners, and seats up to 120 guests for a wedding ceremony and breakfast. The Grade I listed castle stands on a private estate beside the River Exe, near Tiverton in mid-Devon.
Seminars and company events
The castle sells meeting space for seminars, board meetings, training days and corporate dinners. It states five good-sized reception rooms for meetings, including the Great Hall and a large first-floor conference room that offers privacy and good wifi. Recent conferences have ranged from 16 to 40 delegates, and larger groups can be hosted on a day basis. A dedicated events team coordinates the day.
Team activities can be added at extra cost, including kayaking, Segway rides, zorbing and archery on the grounds, or clay shooting at a nearby school. Indoor options include a castle history tour and a treasure hunt.
Weddings and receptions
Bickleigh is licensed for civil ceremonies and sells exclusive-use weddings. The Great Hall seats up to 120 guests for a ceremony, with a Minstrels' Gallery and a log fire in winter. On the Gazebo lawn beside the river, more guests can attend an outdoor ceremony. The castle can seat 120 for the wedding breakfast, and more guests can join for the evening. A Wedding Breakfast Room hosts the meal. For very large weddings a marquee is needed.
A small chapel in the walled garden is available for blessings and humanist ceremonies.
Rooms and capacities
The spaces to ask about are the Great Hall (120 seated for a ceremony), the first-floor conference room, the Wedding Breakfast Room, the Gazebo lawn and the chapel. Exact room-by-room capacities for meetings are given in the conference brochure, not on the web pages.
Accommodation
The castle offers 18 bedrooms and suites. The site gives two figures: up to 18 guests when nobody shares, and up to 40 overnight guests when some twin or double rooms are shared. Three Grade II listed cottages on the estate also accommodate up to 40 guests for a wedding weekend. More beds are available very close by.
Catering
Sample menus and a conference brochure can be downloaded from the website. Breakfast is served to overnight guests. Confirm with the events team whether a wedding or conference menu is cooked in-house and how dietary needs are handled.
History and setting
The Great Hall dates to Norman times, with improvements in the 15th century by Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon. The estate covers more than 65 acres of lawns, a moat, a walled garden and a knot garden, with the River Exe running through. The chapel was a parish church until the 1400s, served as a cattle shed in the 19th century and was restored in 1929.
Getting there
The castle is 20 minutes from the M5 and has parking, including space for coaches. Tiverton Parkway and Exeter St Davids stations are the nearest rail stops, and a train from London Paddington to Tiverton takes about two hours. Exeter and Bristol airports are the closest.
