Traitors-style castle events in Scotland: what the packages cost and include

The return of Celebrity Traitors on 1 October 2026 has put a growing range of Traitors-style events in focus across the UK, including Scottish castle stays. Organisers told the Guardian they see demand when the programme returns; for customers, the choices range from short team games to a £4,388 castle package for two.

The offers do not all provide the same experience. Some bring a game to a venue chosen by a workplace. Others combine accommodation, meals and activities over a castle weekend. The prices cited by organisers are examples of those different formats, rather than a standard rate for taking part.

What does a Traitors-style castle weekend cost?

The Guardian reported that daylong activities can cost a few hundred pounds. At the other end of the published offers, Rothes Glen in the Scottish Highlands advertised a castle conspiracy weekend in August 2027 for £4,388 per room for two guests. That is a listed package price, not a measure of how many rooms have sold.

Rothes Glen’s listing gives the dates as Thursday 26 August to Sunday 29 August 2027, with arrival from 3pm and departure by 10am. It describes £4,388 as a discounted double-occupancy price, against a usual price of £4,876, and says the early-booking discount ends on 30 April 2027.

Customers should read the duration wording carefully: the dated schedule runs from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning, while a generic description on the same Rothes Glen page says two nights. The venue also says at least five rooms must be booked by 28 May 2027 or the event may be cancelled. It advises guests to await final confirmation before booking travel.

How much is exclusive castle hire?

Exclusive use is a different proposition. Roger Masterson, founder of castle-stay specialist Celtic Castles, told the Guardian that a luxury property for about 30 people might cost £10,000 a night on a bed-and-breakfast basis. In his example, two nights plus roughly £10,000 to organise the game would bring the weekend to about £30,000.

That figure is Masterson’s illustration, not a universal quotation. He said some castle hotels instead assemble guests into faithful and traitor roles for a shared weekend, building a story and game around the group. The options therefore differ in both who gets use of the property and how much of the event is arranged for them.

Ardross Castle, the Highland setting associated with the television programme, is available for exclusive hire by corporate and private clients, according to VisitScotland Business Events. The Guardian reported that contestants do not stay there during filming and that it is not a hotel where fans can book individual overnight rooms. Its availability for whole-property hire should not be confused with a regular hotel booking.

What do shorter team events include?

GOTO Events offers a mobile activity called Betrayers for groups of five to 1,000 at a customer-selected UK venue. Its published description puts the game at two to three hours and says players tackle four challenge rounds while hidden betrayers try to disrupt their teams. Between rounds, participants meet at a round table to identify them.

GOTO lists props, event staff, setup and pack-down, venue-finding assistance and an award ceremony among its inclusions. It also lists public liability insurance and a risk assessment. The company describes the activity as inspired by The Traitors and says it is not affiliated with the television show.

Danni Warren, GOTO’s head of marketing, told the Guardian that tailored Traitors-style activities had become the company’s most popular experience and that interest had persisted since the show launched. She described corporate team bonding as the most common source of customers. Those comments describe GOTO’s experience; they do not establish sales across the wider events market.

What evidence is there for growing demand?

Masterson told the Guardian that searches for Traitors-style experiences on Celtic Castles’ pages spike whenever the show returns. VisitScotland Business Events has also promoted Scottish castles as settings for events drawing on the programme’s atmosphere. Together, those accounts show how a booking specialist and a tourism body are responding to interest, but neither supplies market-wide booking totals.

The programme’s reach is clearer than its effect on castle bookings. In separate reporting on 2 October, the Guardian said the Celebrity Traitors premiere drew an average overnight audience of 8.9 million and a 54.9% share of people watching television at the time, citing data from Digital i. Audience figures cannot show how many viewers went on to buy an event.

For castle owners, Masterson said hospitality can help meet repair costs, recalling owners who needed major work such as a £100,000 roof replacement. That account explains one reason to offer stays and events; it does not establish how much Traitors-style bookings have contributed to repairs or revenue.

The immediate choices for customers are therefore concrete, while the scale of the trend remains uncertain. GOTO publishes a short mobile format, Rothes Glen lists a conditional castle weekend, and VisitScotland says Ardross can be hired exclusively. Prices, inclusions and booking conditions depend on the provider and the kind of venue access requested.