26-07-2025
The Crossbasket Castle hotel review: a regal stay with a twist
Crossbasket Castle has been putting on the ritz, adding 40 art deco-style bedrooms and a buzzing restaurant where there's live music every night of the week and full-on shows at the weekend. Guests at this grand pile, ten miles southeast of Glasgow near the town of East Kilbride, now have a choice of rooms: 17th-century grandeur in the castle or sleeker, Twenties-style digs in a new building. Whichever they pick, the welcome is warm, afternoon tea is an event and evenings positively fizz when Trocadero's opens for cocktails, dinner and dancing. A spa is set to open by the river next year.
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Score 8/10The 40 new rooms, a short stroll from the castle, run from compact doubles to spacious suites with balconies looking out on the greenery of the 14-acre riverside estate. The style is art deco but subtle: furniture with brushed gold edges, plush scalloped headboards in shades of oyster, clam shell-shaped chairs and ottomans in light sage. Traditionalists might prefer one of the nine castle bedrooms, where rolltop baths, fireplaces and canopied beds provide a sense of place.
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Score 9/10Dinner in Trocadero's is a big draw. It's less about the food and more about the party atmosphere, which on weekends includes live jazz, dancers and cocktails. Week nights might be quieter, but there's still steak carved tableside, Josper-grilled lobster and a dessert trolley tottering with petits gâteaux. Next door is Foveran's, a light and airy restaurant, where breakfast is the full works — eggs benedict, omelettes and full fry-ups — and there's even a bloody mary station (as well as restorative fresh juices). Come here for afternoon tea (£39pp), which is also served in the castle's antique-filled Stewart Room.
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Aside from exploring the great outdoors, that's your lot… for now. The new riverside spa with outdoor hydrotherapy pools and treatments focussed on artisanal Scottish products will open later in 2025.
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Score 7/10In Scotland's Central Belt, Crossbasket Castle is easy to access from Glasgow and Edinburgh, the former just 20 minutes or so by car. It's a five-minute drive to Blantyre for the birthplace of the explorer David Livingstone, and two minutes from the East Kilbride Expressway, which puts Loch Lomond, the Falkirk Wheel or Stirling Castle within striking distance.
Price B&B doubles from £195Restaurant mains from £18Family-friendly YAccessible YDog-friendly Y
Helen Ochyra was a guest of Crossbasket Castle (
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