Celebrate the arrival of 2027 in the extraordinary surroundings of Appleby Castle, with an evening of fine dining, live music, history, dancing and traditional celebration.
For guests staying overnight in the Castle, the bar will be open from 3:00pm, giving you time to settle into your room, relax and begin the celebrations at your leisure.
Guests joining us for the evening are welcomed from 5:30pm and are invited to enjoy a drink and look around the Castle before dinner, taking in some of its remarkable historic rooms and nearly a thousand years of history.
From 6:00pm, our traditional Highland piper will play throughout the Castle at various times during the evening, bringing the sound of the pipes to its historic rooms and passageways. His performances will continue throughout the night, culminating at midnight as he pipes in the New Year.
At approximately 7:00pm, guests will gather for a sumptuous New Year’s Eve feast. Dinner will be served in two of the Castle’s beautiful 15th-century rooms — the Great Hall and the Dining Room. Each offers its own very different atmosphere for the evening.
The 15th-century Great Hall will form the heart of the evening’s musical entertainment. Decorated for Christmas with a magnificent Christmas tree and warmed by a roaring fire, the Great Hall provides a wonderfully festive setting in which to dine.
Our live pianist will play throughout dinner in the Great Hall, while the Highland piper will visit and perform at various points during the evening, adding to the sense of occasion in this magnificent historic room.
For those who prefer a more intimate dining experience, the adjoining 15th-century Dining Room offers a particularly warm and traditional setting, with its log burner glowing throughout the evening.
At the centre of the Dining Room is a large historic table, making it particularly well suited to a family or group of approximately 14 to 16 guests who would like to celebrate New Year’s Eve together around one table.
There is also additional seating within the Dining Room, including three tables for four guests and a table for two, making it equally suitable for couples and smaller parties.
There will be no live pianist within the Dining Room itself; instead, background music will provide a relaxed accompaniment to dinner. The Highland piper will give an extended performance in the Dining Room, ensuring guests dining there enjoy their own special live musical experience during the evening.
Following dinner, guests in both the Great Hall and Dining Room will be treated to a short and entertaining account of the history of Appleby Castle. We will look not only at the Castle itself, but also at some of the remarkable people who have occupied it over the centuries, with particular insight into those who would have known these rooms and lived within these walls at the turning of the year.
It is a chance to imagine New Year at Appleby Castle in centuries past — the people, the traditions, the fires, the feasting and the lives that once filled these rooms as one year gave way to the next.
The evening will then feature a special duet between the Highland piper and pianist in the Great Hall, before the celebrations move downstairs to the atmospheric 12th-century Great Hall.
Here, beside a roaring medieval open fire, the evening becomes altogether more lively, with a bar, disco and dancing carrying the celebrations towards midnight.
As the clock strikes twelve, guests will raise a glass as the Highland piper brings in 2027, culminating an evening of performances throughout the Castle and welcoming the New Year within its ancient walls.
The celebrations continue afterwards, with the disco running until 1:30am.
Fine dining. Roaring fires. Live piano and Highland pipes. Castle history. Dancing until 1:30am.
Welcome 2027 somewhere unforgettable — Appleby Castle.
