Want to host your own Traitors-inspired weekend? Here’s everything you need to know

We know you’re watching it. And if you’re anything like us, you’re also thinking about playing it. It’s easy to feel confident while you’re watching from the sofa, but how would you really fare if Claudia Winkleman tapped you on the shoulder? Could you hold firm when accused or give yourself away before breakfast? Chances are, you’ve already cast yourself and a couple of friends too (who doesn’t know someone who would make a scarily good traitor?!) But all those secret meetings and hooded cloaks mean nothing without a suitably atmospheric setting.

Our destination experts have handpicked castles and country houses with just the right amount of drama to turn a birthday weekend, a multigenerational reunion or a hen or stag do into something deliciously devious. Be warned, though: once somebody declares themselves a Faithful over dinner, they’ll be hearing about it for years.

Find a house with plenty of atmosphere

With Ardross Castle providing the setting for The Traitors, Scotland is the obvious place to host your own weekend of trust and treachery. The Fortalice has stone spiral staircases, four-poster beds and a firelit Great Hall where an ordinary chat could easily be mistaken for a secret meeting.

Finnie Castle, over in the Scottish Borders, has ancestral portraits looking down on its Great Hall, as well as a past full of border conflict and royal intrigue. You needn’t invent much to make a meeting there feel momentous, particularly after dark.

Then there’s The Storied Garth, a Scottish Baronial mansion with towers, a bar, 12 acres of riverside grounds and a giant outdoor chessboard that feels far too good to leave out of the game. Make it the afternoon mission, let the winning team earn a shield, and if one of your Traitors spends the whole thing pretending not to know how a knight moves, that’s between them and the Round Table.

If you want your Traitors to meet in an actual turret, C17th Castle in Somerset has eight of them across the courtyard from the main building, where a granite table seats 16. At Noblestone Castle in Norfolk, you cross a drawbridge over a moat to reach four reception rooms, enough for the Faithfuls to compare theories while the Traitors work out which ones to encourage; by dinner, all 30 guests can gather in the oak-panelled dining room to see how those theories hold up.

Windermere Gothic Mansion sleeps 36 and has a library, a cinema room and the sort of grand hallways that could make an innocent trip to the kitchen require a corroborated alibi.

Or take the game across the Irish Sea to County Meath Castle, a 500-year-old keep with tower bedrooms and its own ghostly legend: after a tragic love affair, Sabina is said to haunt the castle. Tell that story on the first night and nobody will admit to hearing footsteps on the stairs.

Of course, once you’ve finished imagining everybody in cloaks, there’s the matter of booking a house that works for your group. Check who can sleep where, how many people can sit down to dinner, which rooms or outdoor spaces you can use for the game and what the rules are if you’d like to bring in a host; have somewhere to play if it rains, too, because a rain-soaked mission is considerably more fun on television than it is when you’re the one holding the clue cards.

Build your game around the house

A castle that has been collecting stories for centuries ought to contribute more than a backdrop, so read up on it before you arrive and see what you can borrow. At Noblestone Castle, built in 1455, a fictional letter bearing that date could be your first clue, while at County Meath Castle, Sabina’s ghost story would fit into your narrative perfectly.

The missions can take their cues from the house, too. The Storied Garth’s giant outdoor chessboard is almost asking to become a challenge, photographs taken in the grounds could send teams off in search of details they walked straight past that morning, and a games room or an archery session, where available, gives you something to work with without inventing an obstacle course.

Someone, unfortunately, does have to know how it all works. Give one friend the roles and the job of keeping everybody’s secrets straight; after the first evening they can slip a death warrant under a door, let an empty chair do its work at breakfast, and leave everyone to draw their own conclusions until they sit down at the Round Table and begin accusing one another. Agree in advance what the shield protects and how the final vote works, but don’t try to schedule every conversation – anyone banished is still on holiday and may be enjoying it even more now that nobody expects them to explain where they were at half past three.

With a host, everyone can play

The trouble with being in charge is that you know too much, and the real fun is being in the dark with everyone else. Our dedicated event partners can bring a professional host and tailor the game to your group and the house, drawing on its rooms, grounds and history for the missions while they look after the secrets and keep the accusations moving. You could give yourself over to it for an afternoon, make a full day of the game or let it play out across the weekend.

By Sunday, the house will have a few new stories to add to its history, most of them involving friends you thought you knew. You’ll forgive the lies by checkout, though you may never play cards with some of them again.

Have a look through our Traitors-inspired stays and assemble your cast. Once you’ve booked, our Concierge team can help arrange a hosted game with one of our dedicated event partners, depending on what’s possible at your chosen home. Concierge can also help you explore private dining for the final reveal.