Chillingham Castle Reviews Summary

Antiques and Artifacts

Pros:

• "One of the best Antiques collection I ever seen in castle."
• "Many rooms are open to visitors, and contain a huge miscellany of historic artefacts from a variety of sources, which are fascinating."
• "The collection of antiquities inside is very impressive and adds to the creepy atmosphere."
• "A very eclectic collection of artifacts connected to the location and owners."
• "The Castle and the historical artefacts were brilliant."
• "A wonderful building stuffed full of interesting artifacts."
• "The castle itself is fantastic outside and even better inside with an amazing collection of antiques and interesting artifacts."

Cons:

• "Crammed full of random tat. Frankly bizarre explanations of the history and the 'torture room' didn't really need a ghost tour to scare anyone."
• "It seemed like we were visiting a hoarder's home."
• "Unfortunately the Castle is just a large collection of the owners accumulated junk that's been collected over the years, jammed into dark and dirty rooms."
• "Paid best part of 30 quid to gawp at some rich toffs junk and tat they had accrued over the last few decades."
• "Appallingly bad value. A rather uninspiring, badly maintained castle full of very poorly curated escapees from a local junk shop."
• "The rooms in the castle are filled with the owners personal antique collection, which most of it has no resemblance to the history of the Castle."
• "We visited here and to be honest it seemed like we were visiting a hoarder's home."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "The young lady taking payment was friendly, helpful and had a great sense of humour."
• "The staff are helpful and knowledgeable. Altogether a great place to go."
• "Helpful and polite staff."
• "The staff were very friendly and happy to help, but we were very disappointed with the lack of History about the Castle itself."
• "The staff were very friendly, helpful and nothing was too much trouble."
• "The staff member in the first room is so knowledgeable and helpful."
• "Staff were fantastic and couldn't have been more helpful."

Cons:

• "Service a bit slow in the cafe and I had to ask a few times as they seemed to have forgotten about me but it was busy."
• "Some of the staff sooooooo rude and ignorant stayed 10 minutes at tops and left felt soooo unkept and dirty an absolute mess DONT GO."
• "But the person in the great hall who is supposed to be there to enlighten and help people was just ignorant and sarcastic."
• "Only give 4 stars as one of the staff, a man in the great hall, talked about the world coming to an end due to covid."
• "Service a bit slow in the cafe."
• "A brilliant day soured only slightly by a mildly rude encounter with the owner Sir Wakefield."
• "The castle was closed in respect to the Queen RIP. we weren't contacted about this, we just turned up to find a sign saying it was closed."

Atmosphere and Experience

Pros:

• "An outstanding experience!!"
• "Love this place, great to visit during the day, even better on a night on one of the ghost tours, or hunts."
• "Delicious refreshments were had at the Minstrels tearoom."
• "If you are looking to stay the night in a haunted castle, it doesn't get more haunted than here!"
• "All in all a stunning day at Chillingham I would thoroughly recommend you pay a visit."
• "So full of history, atmosphere and stories."
• "A truly fascinating castle!"

Cons:

• "I was put off a bit as I had a strange experience👻 in there and it scared me."
• "The atmosphere in some of the rooms is without question one of underlying malevolence, whereas some of the others are eerily spooky but in a 'non scary' way."
• "The haunted history of the castle is supposed to be so interesting and yet there was nothing anywhere to tell you about it."
• "I wasn't sure after a tour of the old house how comfortable I'd be staying in the apartments, spooky ghost wise."
• "Didn’t catch any visual but few voices... cold spots (yes it is an old castle but you know the difference) it’s an amazing beautiful place and can’t wait to go back in the summer."
• "The dungeon is dark and dingy, with highly uneven flagstones which do add to the atmosphere but it could be a bit dangerous."
• "My wife, myself, and my two daughters found this place very unsettling and we are usually people who love visiting castles, houses and all places of interest."