Farnham Castle

It was the home of bishops from the twelfth century, extended and softened over eight hundred years into the Bishop's Palace, and it is now Grade I and Grade II listed and given over, one wedding at a time, on an exclusive-use basis. For the day, the whole castle and its five acres of grounds are yours, the halls and the lawns and the bedrooms, with no other event and no other couple. Venue hire starts from £4,000.

Four rooms hold a civil ceremony licence. The Great Hall, vast and timber-roofed, hung with centuries-old portraits, takes a ceremony for up to two hundred and sixty-five and a wedding breakfast for up to two hundred and thirty-four. The arch-lined Lantern Hall seats 160, the Winchester Suite 130 with views over the Rose Garden, and The Library, on the first floor with views over Farnham town and the Surrey Hills, seats up to 60 for a smaller ceremony. Two Church of England chapels, the Norman Chapel and the 17th-century Bishop's Chapel, are available to eligible couples holding their reception at the castle.

Outside, the East Lawn looks over the White Rose Garden for an outdoor ceremony with the castle and the keep behind, and the Great Lawn takes a marquee for the largest celebrations. Farnham Castle does not publish a specific wet-weather plan for an outdoor ceremony; the obvious indoor alternatives are the licensed rooms already described, and it is worth confirming the exact fallback with the wedding team when booking.

Dining is done in house, by the castle's own chefs. The menus are modern British and seasonal, drawn from the castle's own Kitchen Garden and a wood-fired oven, from £150 per person, with grazing boards and canapes through the drinks reception and a proper wedding breakfast beneath the portraits of the Great Hall. Nothing is brought in from outside.

Farnham Castle is a mile from Farnham railway station, which runs direct to London Waterloo, and about an hour from central London by car, close to the A31 and A3; Heathrow and Gatwick are the nearest airports. The town itself is worth the walk: Georgian shopfronts along West Street, The Borough and East Street, Farnham Maltings for arts and a monthly market, Gostrey Meadow along the River Wey, and Waverley Abbey, England's first Cistercian abbey, founded in 1128, a short drive out. Farnham Park's 295 acres and the start of the North Downs Way sit beside the castle itself.

Guests arrive and check in on the Friday, with a casual lunch and a welcome dinner for close family and friends; Saturday is the ceremony, the reception and dinner and dancing in the Great Hall, with a complimentary late bar; Sunday closes with a brunch before everyone says goodbye. The castle is exclusive-use only, so the whole party stays inside the walls rather than mixing with other hotel guests, but that also means all 33 bedrooms are part of the commitment, and a car or taxi is genuinely useful for exploring Farnham beyond the castle gates.

Thirty-three en-suite bedrooms and a Honeymoon Suite. The party gathers in the Gatehouse and Pembroke preparation suites on the morning, guests stay the weekend within the castle walls, and the celebration spreads either side, breakfast in the old rooms, a wander through the grounds, a drink in the bar.

For a couple who wants the real thing, a true medieval castle rather than an approximation of one, Farnham Castle is a rare find in the south of England. Vows beneath a timber roof that has stood for centuries, a candlelit banquet under ancestral portraits, an outdoor ceremony beneath the Norman keep, and the whole castle, exclusively yours, for the weekend.