Who Owns the Traitors Castle? Inside Ardross, and Whether You Can Stay
The castle where Claudia Winkleman presides over all that backstabbing is a real place: Ardross Castle, in the Scottish Highlands.
The castle where Claudia Winkleman presides over all that backstabbing is a real place: Ardross Castle, in the Scottish Highlands. It is privately owned, it has been in the same family since 1983, and its earlier history runs on a 19th-century tea-and-opium fortune. You cannot book a room like a hotel, but you can hire the whole castle, for a price. Here is who owns it, what it costs, and how to see it for yourself.
Every series of The Traitors sends viewers to the same search: where is that castle, and who owns it? The answer is Ardross Castle, a Scottish Baronial pile in Ross-shire that has been the show's home since 2022, for both the UK version and the American one. It is a genuine private castle and events venue, not a set, and its story is more interesting than the show lets on.
At a glance
| The castle | Ardross Castle, Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands |
| Where | About 10 miles inland from Alness, 30 miles north of Inverness |
| Owner | The McTaggart family, since 1983 |
| Built | Scottish Baronial, expanded in the 19th century |
| On screen | The Traitors (UK and US) since 2022 |
| Can you stay? | Exclusive whole-castle hire only, from around £5,500 a night |
Where Is the Traitors Castle?
Ardross sits in the hills of Ross-shire, roughly 10 miles inland from the east-coast town of Alness and about 30 miles north of Inverness. It is properly remote, which is the point: the isolation that makes the show's contestants feel cut off from the world is entirely real. The castle has hosted the British series, fronted by Claudia Winkleman, since 2022, and the US version filmed there too.
Who Owns Ardross Castle?
Ardross has been owned by the McTaggart family since 1983, and they still own it today. The family is known for business, property development and philanthropy, and includes Sir John Mactaggart, 4th Baronet, and Fiona Mactaggart, a former Labour MP. They run the castle as an exclusive events and wedding venue, which is what The Traitors hires it as.[1]
The earlier history is grander and stranger. A hunting lodge here was bought by the 1st Duke of Sutherland in the late 1700s; in 1845 the estate was sold to Sir Alexander Matheson, who built the castle into its present Baronial form. Matheson's money came from his family firm, the trading house that would become Jardine Matheson, which made its fortune in tea and opium; he paid £90,000 for Ardross and its 60,000 acres.[2] After the Mathesons it passed to Charles William Dyson Perrins, heir to the Lea & Perrins sauce business, and later to the Mardon family, before the McTaggarts bought it in 1983. The castle on your screen was built on a Victorian opium-and-tea fortune.
Can You Stay at the Traitors Castle?
Yes, but not the way you stay in a hotel. Ardross does not let individual rooms; the only way in is to hire the entire castle on an exclusive-use basis.[3] That gets you the run of the place, its fifteen bedrooms and estate cottages sleeping up to 41 people, usually across a two-night stay.
Castle hire starts at around £5,500 a night in low season, based on a small group of about 18 guests. Most bookings are weddings: a small one for around 30 guests starts near £13,840, and a full celebration for up to 130 guests over two nights begins around £45,000. The castle is hired "as is," so you bring your own caterer and bar, and Ardross builds each wedding to order rather than selling a fixed package. It is, in other words, exactly the kind of Scottish castle wedding venue we cover in our castle wedding venues guide, and one of the castles you can stay in if you can fill it. It also sits among the other castles near Inverness worth a Highland detour.
What a Castle Like Ardross Is Worth
Ardross is not for sale, and a family that has held it for over forty years shows no sign of letting go. But it is a useful illustration of what a Highland castle estate actually is: not a museum piece, but a working private property that earns its keep through events and filming. That is increasingly the only way a castle of this size pays for itself.
If Ardross has you wondering what a Scottish castle of your own would cost, the real market is more attainable than the show suggests. Plenty of castles change hands for a fraction of what a trophy estate fetches, as we set out in the most expensive castles ever sold and across our live castles for sale listings. The Traitors castle is the dream; the market underneath it is real.
Visiting Ardross
Because it is a private, exclusive-use venue, Ardross is not generally open for casual day visits the way a National Trust castle would be, and access depends on the events calendar and any open days the estate runs. The grounds and the wider Ross-shire countryside are reason enough to make the drive north from Inverness, and fans can at least see the gates and setting that open every episode. Check the official site for any public access before travelling.
Sources
1. Ardross Castle, official site, heritage and ownership; reporting on the McTaggart family's ownership since 1983. https://ardrosscastle.co.uk/heritage/
2. Ardross Castle heritage history (Dukes of Sutherland, Sir Alexander Matheson and the Jardine Matheson trading fortune, Dyson Perrins, Mardon). https://ardrosscastle.co.uk/heritage/
3. Ardross Castle, official weddings and exclusive-hire information, including capacity and pricing. https://ardrosscastle.co.uk/weddings/