Muncaster Castle made an appearance on television this weekend, when they spoke about how the recruitment crisis is affecting business.

As images of Muncaster Castle appeared on screen, surrounded by stunning views, one of the presenters asked: “Who wouldn’t want to work somewhere like that?”

An ITV reporter visited the castle and spoke to Ewan Frost-Pennington who has been increasingly responsible for running events at his grand family home.

Despite achieving a seven percent increase in business over the past year, Muncaster has been limited by a lack of staff.

Although Ewan said he wants and plans to host more events at the medieval castle throughout 2024, he is not confident that there are enough members of staff to support this.

“It’s the one thing stopping us,” he said, “It’s incredibly frustrating,” Muncaster needs more staff to accommodate bigger events.

Ewan explained how the difficulties with finding staff are exaggerated by the remote, rural location and that the hospitality industry has not recovered since the Covid Pandemic.

Muncaster Castle is currently looking for senior roles including a catering manager and kitchen staff as well as chefs.

To try and remedy the recruitment crisis many businesses are currently dealing with, Rachel Tyson from Cumbria Tourism said they are focusing on putting things in place for the future.

As 79% of businesses in Cumbria report difficulties filling staff positions, Cumbria Tourism has started working with younger people a lot more, by becoming more involved in school they hope more local people will take on these empty roles.