Richard Lofthouse discovers there’s only one way to travel 
if you want to make the most of a night at Amberley Castle

An hour’s train journey from London’s Victoria Station lies Amberley, possibly the prettiest village in the South Downs area of southern England. A 10-minute stroll from the Harry Potteresque station (or a three-minute taxi ride for the luggage laden) takes you to Amberley Castle, a 14th-century fortress with 20-metre walls. 


Nothing behind the imposing, twin-towered medieval gatehouse entrance breaks the bucolic spell: the magical courtyard awash with fragrant hyacinths, the purple wallflowers and cooing white doves, and the ancient manor house itself, which is now a luxury hotel. 


Nine-hundred-year-old Amberley, since 2007 part of the von Essen Group’s 29-strong hotel portfolio, offers 19 bedrooms and suites, many with four-poster beds and all featuring bathrooms with spa baths. Facilities include tennis courts, croquet lawn, sweeping grounds, lakes and a professional standard 18-hole putting course. There is even a stunning thatched-roof tree house complete with rope bridge for those who really want to get away from it all for a while; not that the castle’s interiors aren’t sumptiously distracting. And our meal at the much-garlanded restaurant was simply astonishing.


If you can contemplate working in such an idyll, there are two imposing meeting rooms, which events manger Lucia Brown says are popular for “brainstorming awaydays” with “high-level boardroom types” because of all the activities throughout the grounds.


If time really is of the essence for your business or leisure activities — or if you have really super-deep pockets — there is an extra-special option. Von Essen also owns Premiair, a helicopter leasing company and can deliver the most pampered of guests from Battersea Heliport in South London to Amberley in maximum style and in 15 minutes flat. 


There are two Premiair options: the four-seater “Two-Squirrel” helicopter, which costs £4,140 (€4,555) including VAT for a return trip or the nine-seater Sikorsky S76, which costs £7,500 (€8,250) inlcuding VAT. 


We certainly enjoyed our Scotch on the rocks – drawn, naturally, from an enormous drinks cabinet – on our too-short flight back to London but there are other far cheaper ways to enjoy the whole Amberley and ’copter experience.


The hotel boasted a helipad long before the property joined the von Essen family and there are many other charter companies offering “lunch and return flights” packages, which the hotel is more than happy to recommend. 


Nevertheless, having suffered a frazzled two hours on public transport  — travelling across the capital to Victoria on the way to Amberley — the gleaming black Sikorsky actually looks like a good deal. 


amberleycastle.co.uk; premiair-aviation.com; londonheliport.co.uk