Lumley Castle Hotel

Beautiful castle and grounds. Its a bit like a maze getting round it. Lots of stunningly beautiful rooms to relax and chill and have a drink or two. Drinks are not cheap but priced around the going rate. Its a great base to explore surrounding towns. We were staying as family of 10 enjoying the run up to Christmas in a beautiflly decorated castle. The only let down for us was the feble camp beds that we had to use for our 8 and 6yr old. They were uncomfortable and sunken in middle giving little support.

The venue, absolutely top marks. 600 years of history, so what's not to like. The staff were all really welcoming and helpful. And the overall atmosphere was good. A couple of things concerned me really. Firstly, because many of these very old and very large buildings would cost a small fortune to fully refurbish. The work is often temporary and not the best. On the whole the condition of things was OK. But a lot of the stonework on the exterior was really crumbling and could do with serious attention. That's not to say that it was structurally unsound, just needed sustained investment. The courtyard rooms we stayed in were looking a little tired too and could do with a general overhaul. The second think was the food. Two of the guests were family visiting from Spain. And both were looking forward to a good English breakfast. Sorry to say that Lumley Castle really let us down. The sausage and bacon looked like it has been warmed gently in water. With no evidence of being in a pan. The tomatoes were the cheapest available. Toast was just standard supermarket fayre and black pudding was run of the mill stuff. I don't think we paid a huge amount for breakfast. But a few pounds extra and a little more care taken would produce a breakfast worthy of a castle.

Great rate nice stay, the kids enjoyed the ghost story

Beautiful setting and great location to visit family,had to change room as soon as we got there because there was hairs & dirt in the bed,people & service great

The room size was decent and the staff was friendly, but, sadly that's where the positivity ends. Overall, it feels like there is a lack of care and professionalism that I would expect from this standard of hotel. The room's cleanliness was not good. The carpet wasn't vacuumed once while we stayed there (4 nights). The sink was left dirtier after housekeeping had been because they washed the coffee cups in the sink and then left the coffee stains. Breakfast was very disappointing with the hot offerings being either burnt (has browns were inedible) or undercooked (the black pudding was raw). We ended up making do with the continental breakfast. The worst part of the stay was how noisy the property was at night. The walls were paper thin and we could clearly hear other people's conversations and toilet habits in the next room. The indoor leading from outside to the rooms kept slamming and the other guests must have been there for weddings or functions as they were arriving back at 1/2am in the morning. We have had the worst 4 consecutive nights sleep since our child was born. It was so bad that we had our son stay with a relative on the last night so at least he could get a good nights sleep.

As a family, we loved that it gave us an authentic experience of how life in a castle could have been.

This hotel was lovely stayed for a family member wedding