Lovely surroundings but disappointed with the afternoon tea we had. We booked two months ago for 12.00. When we arrived 5 mins early we were asked to wait in the bar because the staff were still clearing away breakfast. We were not collected from the bar until after 12.15. We mentioned when we booked there were three vegetarians and said this again when we went into the restaurant. The sandwiches arrived for one vegetarian and they took them back away without an apology. When they arrived a second time they were all the same filling on white bread. Probably the worst I have ever had for an afternoon tea. The meat eater in our group had cucumber and brown bread which easily could have been adapted for the rest of us. The coffee was flavourless. When we asked for some butter the waitress questioned us saying the Scones aren't cheese which we knew but still wanted butter. When we left the staff did not ask whether we enjoyed the tea and didn't even say goodbye. Poor service and poor coffee and sandwiches.

Love this place! Definitely not your average hotel... We stayed in a castle room - in the main body of the castle up a stone spiral staircase. Room was starting to look a little shabby, but overall was well equipped, clean and a nice, quirky place to sleep. They're in the process of renovating some of these rooms so hopefully they'll all be refreshed soon. Exterior of the castle and grounds are stunning and there are nice walks by the river just a stone's throw away. Staff are all lovely, breakfast was delicious and the restaurant is a lovely place to be. Exploring the inside of the castle is good fun and it's amazing to see how a 600yr old building has been turned into modern rooms with all facilities. Poppet the resident cat is also a joy to have around - what a home and life for a cat to have...lucky girl!

Great food and a lovely room. The only negative was the person at reception when we checked in. He appeared to be disinterested and was not welcoming at all. All other staff were very friendly. A great experience overall.

Lumley Castle was without doubt the right venue for our wedding and we are really pleased we chose it. Everything ran smoothly on the day, it’s a venue with a lot of experience of weddings and they know what they are doing. David was our Co-ordinator on the day and he was great, helpful, nothing was too much trouble and it felt like he really cared about everything running smoothly. We booked the Scarbrough room for our ceremony and the Baron Suite for the reception. It was lovely to have the two options for the two elements of our day. The Baron Suite is really quirky - if you book it and go for table flowers I recommend utilising the candelabras, we did and they looked fab with trailing flowers arranged by our florist. Emma and Holly were excellent in terms of the planning, very helpful, knew their stuff and were very responsive. One of the things I found stressful with wedding planning was when suppliers didn’t get back very promptly but that was never an issue with Lumley. Always consistent in terms of communication. Price wise, we went with the sapphire package and it felt reasonable for what we got, our guests loved the food. There wasn’t much negotiation on price for things, some prices/pricing strategies were set in stone. So if you are looking for a lot of negotiation price wise then this may not be the venue for you. However I don’t know that other venues are big on negotiation either. If you want to get married somewhere that’s extremely picturesque for photos, quirky for guests and with staff who genuinely are lovely then I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Lumley Castle. We had a brilliant day and our chosen venue was definitely part of this.

We had a lovely stay in a super turret bedroom. Loved all the very castley features, fabric coloured walls and drapes as well as the hidden bathroom. Would love to stay for longer and properly experience it. We had afternoon tea in the Knight's restaurant which was very good. Staff were exceptional, particularly Nina who was very attentive and pleasant. Too full for dinner but we look forward to it another time. Breakfast had lots of choice and was very good.

Lumley Castle is a bit of a curate's egg. It pretty much does as it says, you get a pretty good luxurious room with all mod-cons. It has a very good restaurant, and excellent breakfast and pleasant staff. But there is something just a little bit lacking. On the second night my guest had a steak which was a lot more well done than the medium she was looking for. It just had the air of what was a 4* experience that had got a little tatty and need quite a lot of investment. Spent £550 over two days including breakfast and dinner for 4 people in total, just don't think there was the right value for money to come back.