Exclusive-use stays, executive retreats, private dinners and wedding weekends for up to 90 guests in the Tenants' Hall, with 15 bedrooms for 30 people, can be organized at Cluny Castle, a sixteenth-century family castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The castle accepts a limited number of private stays and events each year, and each group has the house and grounds to itself.
Seminars and company events
Cluny suits small corporate retreats and leadership offsites where the group stays together under one roof. The Dining Room and the Drawing Room host executive dinners, and the Tenants' Hall takes larger gatherings of up to 90. Because the whole castle is booked by one group, there are no other guests and no shared spaces. Activities on the estate can be built into the program: sunrise yoga, wild swimming, whisky tasting, archery, falconry, clay shooting, a 4x4 outing, Highland Games on the lawn, or a foraging walk followed by a cookery class with the private chef.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings are sold as weekends of two or three days, or longer, with exclusive use of the castle and grounds, and only a handful of dates are released each year. Vows are said in the castle chapel, lit through stained glass. Receptions can take place in the Tenants' Hall, and larger banquets can be held under a sailcloth tent on the grounds.
Rooms and capacities
The Tenants' Hall is the largest indoor room, for up to 90 guests. The Dining Room and the Drawing Room are for smaller dinners and receptions. For gala dinners above that number, the grounds offer marquee sites; the castle does not publish a marquee capacity.
Accommodation
The castle has 15 bedrooms, each decorated differently, for up to 30 overnight guests, including a honeymoon suite. Antique paintings, family portraits and old furniture fill the rooms.
Catering
For weddings, couples choose their own caterer, from a multi-course banquet under the tent to a candlelit supper in the Tenants' Hall or late-night pizza outdoors. A private chef is part of the estate experiences, as the foraging walk and cookery class show.
History and setting
Cluny dates from the sixteenth century and has been home to the Gordons of Cluny for more than 400 years. It is still lived in by Cosmo and Bronya Linzee Gordon, and Cosmo Linzee Gordon greets guests on arrival and may join them for dinner or drinks. The castle is a Category A listed building. Its estate covers 300 acres of walled garden, woodland with a stream, a pond and parkland. The castle also works with film, television and commercial productions.
Getting there
Cluny Castle stands in Aberdeenshire near the village of Monymusk, west of Aberdeen. Aberdeen, with its airport and railway station, is the closest city for arrivals.
