IT'S a luxury castle set in 200 acres of parkland in the Yorkshire Dales – and with four AA Red Stars and Three Rosettes, Swinton Park in Ripon is one of the highest rated hotels in the north of England.

Now Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, the managing director whose family bought back the castle ten years ago and extensively restored it as a 30-bedroom hotel, is hoping to win both the Tourism And Hospitality Business Of The Year and the Think Green titles.

Although the opening coincided with the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, the hotel has expanded with the addition of treatment rooms, a cookery school and a bird-of-prey centre.

Last year turnover amounted to £2.9 million.

The hotel offers excellent facilities for the conference and events market, with a whole range of “something completely different” experiences, such as bicycle polo, wild food foraging and survival skills. It hosts weddings ranging from a simple “wedding for two” to exclusive house parties for more than 100.

Among its “green” credentials is investment in a woodchip boiler costing more than £100,000 and a laundry costing £80,000, which reduces water, heat and chemical consumption by 30 per cent.