Peckforton Castle, Cheshire

We have stayed many, many times before and have had some great rooms and memorable experiences. However on this stay there was a wedding so was unable to visit the library, wine cellar and great hall and didn’t really have somewhere comfortable to sit and have a drink. We invited our son and daughter in law to experience Peckforton castle. The rooms were tired and needed attention. If this was our first visit we wouldn’t have come back or recommend it to friends and family. We were very disappointed

Beware: we booked some rooms 6 months out and they took well over £1000 just to make the booking but a few hours later one of our party had a change of plans and so we cancelled and it tools weeks to get any money back BUT when we did they deducted £50 per room for their own inconvenience and said it's IN TGlHE SMALL PRINT seriously!!

I reveiewed a few wedding sites but mistakenly booked Peckforton Castle. We wanted a May 1st date (2008) because that was our 10 year anniversary, so it fell on a weekday. Despite that we paid the full price for the venue. Little to our knowledge they sold another function room to an eclesiastical college ball. The wedding facilitator was on holiday for our date and it was a total nightmare. Drinks from the not so cheap drinks package that we had ordered didn't come through and the schedule wasn't adhered to for our 'moonlight wedding'. Big promises about keeping the other event separate and yet failed so horribly at that - that the other venue were brazenly STEALING our champagne!!!

Yes, students from the eclesiastical college STOLE our guests champaign from a champaign cascade that we paid a pretty penny for and generally crashed our gig, while we were wedding outside on the lawn under the moonlight, they hung out of the window making suitably dissaproving noises at our (non christian) humanist wedding. When I wrote to Peckforton after the event to ask for the address of the relevent college so that I could write to the Dean and inform him/her of it's students transgressions I was denied - the said they would 'pass on' my concerns and considering that I never heard anything back either they didn't give sufficient a shoot about the appauling behaviour of their students (an eclesiastical college - ya know, God squad people...) to give a response or MORE LIKELY Peckforton never passed this on.

This was but one small FAIL in the event that was our wedding at Peckforton, including not giving us the drinks package we ordered (yet charging us for it - moral of the story is to check EVERY detail)... oh and letting other people drink the drinks and eat the midnight buffet food we had paid for... Not only that, the room LACKED in every way. We picked the main hall because of the decor, but the dining room was subsequently booked for a ball, so we ended up with what looked like the SH*T furniture... we were told (last minute) that we could hire 'seat covers' for these... at a small (several hundred pounds) additional price tag. I was not amused and declined. (Having spent £000's on flowers and decoration I figured we would be OK..). ah long story, but the moral is - DO NOT TRUST Peckforton Castle to give you the wedding you planned. They will promise you the world, then f*ck you over.

We took our family to the "Lunch with Santa" on the 19th of December.

It was very exciting and the children couldn't wait, previously we had been there to book and the staff were excellent showing us around and told us about the development of the castle as it had changed into a hotel since we were married there 9 years ago. Ths setting is fantastic and we thought that it would be a superb place to start our Christmas holiday.

Oh how wrong we were. The food was very nice and the staff were also very pleasant but and this is were Peckforton let its self down they almost forgot it was meant to be Christmas and certainly forgot to tell Santa to come. As a waiter with as much charisma as a block of cheese stood in for Santa in his £5 Wilkinson's Santa's outfit I looked on in astonishment as the cushion was quite visible from uunder the suit, our 5 year old looked on in amazement and didn't hold back by saying that "Santa was just the waiter and looked rubbish" while the only words the jolly old elf said to our daughter was "would you like a present?" I almost finished the sentence off my self by say "or what!" This all happened even before we had taken our coats off and sat down while at the same time we were fixing a black out curtain to the window to stop the sun from burning our retina's out, not that this is a fact in the review but customer comfort is importatnt and being blinded during a meal wasn't part of the "Frolocks and Fun" advertised by Peckforton which by the way there wasn't any. It was done very much on the cheap which is a massive shame as the castle is fantastic and could have been so made magical and we would have gone back next year.

Peckforton would benefit from going to local Grotto's and garden centre's to learn how to bring the festive season to it's customers.

What a fantastic wedding day we experienced at Peckforton Castle. My daughter, new husband,family and friends could not speak more highly of the fantastic service shown in all respects by the castle staff, and all had a truly memorable day. Thank you Peckforton Castle for giving my daughter a fairytale wedding beyond her wildest dreams. Even the sun shone brightly in England in November. Thanks so much all of you. Friends have already booked a stay themselves and I know more will follow, including myself! Special thanks of course to your superb wedding co-ordinators who made it run so smoothly.

I would NEVER RECOMMEND Peckforton Castle as a hotel or wedding venue due to the fact we had a large sum of money STOLEN from our LOCKED bedroom DURING OUR WEDDING DAY. The other reason I could not recommend it is because of the appalling customer service we have received from the hotel management- THIS HOTEL SIMPLY REFUSES TO DEAL WITH COMPLAINTS! I am now forced to leave this review after the castle received our written letter of complaint over five weeks ago and neither the hotel manager or the owner of the castle have bothered to reply to us. (Although seem to have time to check websites for our review!!!!!!)

Even though POLICE INVESTIGATIONS have been carried out at the castle, the management have done their best to ignore the situation. We personally had a total of 315Euros, and £130 stolen from us from the locked bridal suite, and several wedding cards from the locked boardroom which is supposed to be a secure place to keep wedding items the night before. When we said to the manager that surely it was likely to be a member of staff who had taken the money seeing as the rooms were locked we were told room keys are sometimes left unattended in reception or put down by members of staff where anyone could basically take them. Therefore beware as this means anyone could enter the castle and get into your room while you are staying there! In our opinion this is NEGLIGENCE, and SECURITY AT THE CASTLE IS NON-EXISTENT!

The reception staff and the manager are inadequately trained to deal with complaints, there does not seem to be a complaints system even in place. The whole experience had been very stressful, and made more upsetting because of the dismissive attitude of the manager, and the fact we have not even had an apology for our ruined wedding experience at the castle. We are deeply unsatisfied with the customer service we have received, and feel the hotel manager is responsible for this.

If you are staying at this hotel I would say do not leave any valuables in your room. I would not allow the porters to take luggage to your room or allow them to move it to another bedroom if you are in a wedding party. Do not leave anything important for your wedding in the boardroom-it is not safe.

WE SPENT A WONDERFUL THREE DAYS AT THE CASTLE,FOR OUR DAUGHTERS WEDDING.THE STAFF COULD'NT DO ENOUGH FOR US.EVERYONE SAID THE DAY WAS SO SPECIAL,AND AS PARENTS WE COULD'NT HAVE HAD A MORE PERFECT PLACE FOR OUR DAUGHTERS WEDDING.

THE NEW SPA WAS GREAT.

The plus points: Peckforton Castle is a lovely castle in a beautiful setting.

The bad points: The staff are generally unhelpful and rude. The wedding business is literally a production line of weddings day after day. The food was very disappointing. The menu was very unimaginative. The soup to start with was the worst I have tasted. The chicken for main course was fair. Dessert was strawberries and cream, which takes no skill and very limited preparation to service. Evening buffet food was wraps and a little hot food, but very little very was provided for the number of guests attending.

Although it has been refurbished parts of the hotel were still rather tatty. Also some places could do with a good clean, including the chapel which is available for wedding blessings.

Once the wedding has taken place, the staff do not want to know and do not care about any issues or concerns you may have. They have taken your thousands and just do not want to know.

If you want an indication of the mindset of the people running this hotel, do a search on the internet for the case where they sued a young couple who had to cancel their wedding because the castle has misreprsented their disability access when the couple originally booked their wedding. You will be a booking to these people, not a unique wedding.

Very nice venue but the most impressive thing was the food. Overall incredible value for money and well worth visiting again. Plans are to add a Spa area and restoration has started.

Our daughter got married week last sunday we stayed sat till mon, from start to finish this was like a fairytale wedding weekend the staff were fantastic, nothing to much trouble everybody had a fantastic time. The behind the scene wedding organisers were fantastic they set everything out for you and on the morning of the wedding low and behold every where was set ready to go.The peckforton owl was a superb touch that everyone commented on. My daughter and now son in law never stopped smiling from start to finish. They actually stayed on the monday night too and the staff at peckforton let them stay in the sumptuous bridal chamber for another night at no extra cost, dont think anywhere else would do that. The food in the restaraunt and at the wedding was amazing, service impeccable, staff helpful and freindly.The setting was the most perfect inside and out for the photograghs. Our photographers was allowed up onto the roof with a member of staff to take the most awesome group photograph. I mmust also state that Peckforton had already had two weddings that weekend we were the third, and still made to feel so special from everyone. So would just like to say, well done Peckforton you certainly made our daughters wedding the fairytale she wanted from start to finish perfect!!!!!!