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2 weeks ago
The Traitors is back with a celebrity twist
The highly anticipated Celebrity Traitors is finally here, presented by Claudia Winkleman who has another whimsically gothic countrycore wardrobe in tow. Starring everyone from Stephen Fry and Celia Imrie to Alan Carr and prankster YouTube star Niko Omilana, it follows the same format of the original series, but this time the £100,000 cash prize goes to charity rather than the finalists’ pockets.
Based on the Dutch series De Verraders, the first series of The Traitors gained a cult following back in December 2022, seeing 22 ordinary British folk picked up and dropped off at a Scottish castle where a £100,000 prize pot is up for grabs should they make it to the end. The show gained acclaim in particular for being a breath of fresh air and normality, harking back to a golden era of British reality TV. And even though we have some Hollywood heavyweights now competing for the cash prize, the gossipy, mischievous core of The Traitors still remains, casting our cast of 19 celebrities into an all-new candid light.
Set in the very same castle ordinary The Traitors is filmed in, here’s everything you need to know about the real Scottish castle the BBC takes over with its deceptive cast of characters every summer – plus whether you can visit, and three dupes to stay in instead.
Every series of The Traitors is filmed at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands. (© Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
The Traitors is filmed at Ardross Castle in the Scottish highlands, and this is where the players eat and socialise throughout the series. The first series was filmed here in May 2022, while filming for the second series took place in September 2023, season 3 was filmed in summer 2024 and season 4 and The Celebrity Traitors were filmed back-to-back in summer 2025.
The now-iconic destination is ‘almost a character itself,’ as The Celebrity Traitors star Alan Carr puts it. ‘It’s a bit like New York in Sex and The City: the fifth character, and you can’t really imagine it being anywhere else. The Traitors’ castle is the epitome of grandeur.’
Meanwhile, the challenges take place at different locations nearby, with the contestants transported in Traitors-themed 4x4s. For example, the final challenge in series one – involving a dramatic helicopter jump and a speed boat zipping across a vast loch – was filmed at Loch Glass, which is located approximately 30 minutes away from Ardross Castle by car.
The Traitors players eat, socialise and strategise at Ardross Castle. (© Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
Set within more than 100 acres of parkland, Ardross Castle is situated in a rural area, lying 30 miles north of the nearest city, Inverness. As we see in The Celebrity Traitors, the grounds are large enough to construct a new graveyard dedicated to our players. Elsewhere they can enjoy manicured gardens, a folly out front and the rolling parkland plenty of peacocks call home.
Built in the Scottish Baronial style and privately owned by the McTaggart family since 1983, Ardross Castle was constructed in the 19th century, mainly by Irish immigrants to the area; as a result, the surrounding village is named Dublin. Before that the grounds were home to a hunting lodge for the 1st Duke of Sutherland.
MORE: Highlandcore: How To Nail Traitors-Style Interiors
Ardross Castle’s grounds are large enough to construct a new graveyard dedicated to our players. (© BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
On filming at Ardross Castle and in the Scottish highlands for series one, Claudia Winkleman said: ‘I thought I’ve been to beautiful places. I have never been anywhere more beautiful than the Scottish highlands in my life. It felt sometimes like we were in a painting if that’s not too cheesy.
‘On day two, we saw a double rainbow and everyone was like oh my gosh, and the crew were crying, there were baby deer, there was beautiful heather, there were ancient trees, and an ancient loch,’ Claudia added. ‘We were all taking pictures. I FaceTimed my kids to say “you’ve never seen anything like it’s magical”. And then by day four, there had been another three double rainbows. I mean, by the end of the three weeks where we had seen 50, it was like, “don’t care”. But it’s just the most beautiful landscape.’
(© BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
The players in The Traitors do not sleep in Ardross Castle. Instead, they are transported by 4×4 back to an unknown hotel every evening and back again the next morning. This explains why the players show up to breakfast in small groups rather than one by one – because they’ve travelled by car together.
So where do they go? The Traitors US presenter Alan Cumming has given us reason to believe they stay in a hotel near Inverness Airport which is under an hour’s drive away. In early 2023, he told The Daily Beast: ‘None of us stayed in the castle. None of us. [The contestants] all stayed in the airport hotel in the Inverness airport.’ Meanwhile, Alan slept in a little house in Inverness, which may well be the case for Claudia, too.
‘How glamorous,’ he quipped. ‘You come to Scotland, and you stay in the Inverness airport hotel.’
Players are transported by 4×4 from Ardross Castle to a hotel every evening and back again for breakfast the next morning. (© BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
MORE: What Do The Players Eat On The Traitors?
The closest hotel to Inverness Airport is Courtyard by Marriott Inverness Airport, and while that isn’t exactly the lap of luxury, it’s nothing to sniff at either. The only question is: is it worthy of our celebrities? Naturally the BBC has kept these details under wraps, so we do not know which hotel they stayed in. But what we do know is that there are plenty of alternative hotels between Ardross Castle and Inverness Airport that production company Studio Lambert may well have taken over for a more low-key location.
If we know all of this, why, then, do we see Faithfuls being murdered in bedrooms that look like they’re in the castle? Dramatic effect, it seems. In series one, we saw contestants climb the stairs of the castle as if to go to bed, but it turns out this was all filmed for show, and the players were always transported to a different hotel in the evening.
The Traitors 4x4s outside Ardross Castle. (BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
Yes, you can visit Ardross Castle – if you have a wedding to plan or a corporate away day on the horizon, that is. If you’d like an experience much like that of The Traitors, Ardross Castle promotes its outdoor team building activities as a selling point. Think GPS treasure hunt, country sports, and throwback school sports sessions.
Likewise, if you’re looking for an iconic wedding venue, look no further: Ardross Castle has you covered. With space for up to 120 guests, every wedding is bespoke, with no cookie-cutter packages. Think strolls through rolling parkland, drinks in Italian gardens, dancing in the Great Hall – all in the knowledge that your new favourite reality TV show was filmed right there.
Discover more at ardrosscastle.co.uk
On a similar latitude to Ardross Castle but on the west side of the Highlands instead of the east, The Torridon is a very grand former shooting lodge, and the UK’s most northerly 5-star hotel. As C&TH‘s Hotels Editor writes, The Torridon is ‘a calm bastion of good living in a remote and beautiful place’. Read her full review here.
Doubles from £305 per night.
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A schloss in Scotland? Yes indeed – and Schloss Roxburghe does look like something you’d stumble across in the German countryside, if not a fairytale. Set across 300 acres in the Scottish Borders, guests can find 78 bedrooms and 51 cottages, a spa and heated infinity pool, fine-dining estate-to-plate restaurants, an 18-hole golf course and plenty more across this idyllic estate.
Doubles from £311 per night.
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While not a castle per se, this glorious Scottish sporting estate is certainly glamorous. A countryside playground, Gleneagles’ reputation precedes it; guests can enjoy the beauty lodge and spa, swimming pool, two Michelin-starred dining, and sporting pursuits spanning salmon fishing, gun dog handling, padel, climbing, golf, riding and more.
Doubles from £575 per night.
All episodes of The Traitors are available to stream on BBC iPlayer. New episodes of The Celebrity Traitors air Wednesday and Thursday nights.
