At Cluny Castle the wedding never has to leave the house. Vows are made in a Gothic chapel joined to the castle, dinner is served in the Tenants’ Hall directly beneath it, and the wedding party sleeps upstairs. The castle stands near Sauchen in Aberdeenshire and has passed down through the Gordons of Cluny for more than four hundred years; Cosmo and Bronya Linzee Gordon live here with their family today. They take a handful of weddings a year, one at a time, and each couple has the whole castle and its grounds. The chapel is private and unconsecrated, so it can hold a religious, humanist, civil, interfaith or same sex ceremony.
A castle of 1604 inside a nineteenth century one
The building guests see from the drive is two castles in one. At its core is a Z-plan tower house of 1604, and the western of the two towers on the entrance front belongs to it, although its top was rebuilt. Between the 1820s and about 1840 the Aberdeen architect John Smith encased the old house in granite and joined it to a new wing through an entrance hall and stair, giving the entrance front its round towers, battlements and porch of three arches between twin towers. Historic Environment Scotland lists the castle at Category A.
Smith’s entrance hall is octagonal, with pilasters of red granite, and it is one of the rooms where a ceremony can be held. One hall is hung with suits of armour, weapons and a stag’s head, and beyond the entrance rises a staircase with carved wooden balustrade panels. Portraits of the family hang in the Dining Room. Film crews have used the house as well: it stood in for Balmoral in The Queen, with Helen Mirren.
The chapel that was rebuilt after the fire
The chapel came three decades after Smith finished. Built between 1870 and 1873 against the north east corner of the castle, it is a large neo-Perpendicular Gothic building with an apse, stone tracery and a rose window, and its first interior was decorated by the artist Daniel Cottier. In September 1926 a fire that started in the kitchens of the Servants’ Hall destroyed two wings and the chapel, while the main house was largely spared. The chapel was rebuilt to its former appearance, but Cottier’s decoration was lost.
The room couples marry in today is that restoration: a vaulted Gothic interior with stained glass, dark oak pews with carved ends and a ceiling lined in tartan, seating up to 120.
Couples who want a different setting can marry in the Tenants’ Hall, the Drawing Room or the Entrance Hall, or outdoors in the grounds by the lake. In Scotland a celebrant can conduct a legal ceremony in any of these places. Because the chapel and the three rooms are all under one roof, an outdoor ceremony can move indoors if the weather turns. The chapel and the rest of the ground floor have disabled access, and dogs are allowed in the chapel.
Drinks in the house, dinner beneath the chapel
After the ceremony guests go into the house. The Drawing Room, with green walls, a plasterwork ceiling and a chandelier, and the Library, lined with old leather bound books, are both part of the hire for the drinks reception, and a master of ceremonies is included as well.
For dinner the party goes back to the chapel wing. The Tenants’ Hall lies directly beneath the chapel, so the evening is spent under the room where the vows were made. Its mullioned windows are filled with stained glass, the floor is parquet and a canopy of fairy lights hangs across the ceiling. It seats 90 for dinner and dancing. A wedding of up to 24 can dine instead in the Dining Room and the Drawing Room.
Larger weddings dine in a marquee on one of several lawn sites, with the castle behind it, and with a marquee added up to 150 can dance in the Tenants’ Hall. A sailcloth tent beside the castle is one of the options.
Catering sits outside the hire, as does any marquee. Couples choose their caterer, from the private chefs and catering partners the castle works with or another firm it approves, and corkage is agreed with the caterer. Menus are built on seasonal Scottish produce, and the format can be a banquet of several courses in the sailcloth tent, a candlelit supper in the Tenants’ Hall, a hog roast, sharing platters or pizzas late in the evening.
A weekend under one roof
Cluny is hired for a weekend rather than a day. A wedding takes the castle and grounds for at least two nights, and most couples arrive the night before and stay on for one or two nights afterwards. The couple decide who sleeps where, and guests who share the cost pay the couple rather than the castle. Bedrooms on the first and second floors have been refurbished with tartan and antique furniture, and the honeymoon suite has period furnishings and views across the estate.
The West Wing is a self-contained apartment with its own entrance and a full kitchen, used for self-catering and by family groups. A ground floor bedroom with disabled access was added there for 2026, and dogs can stay in the wing, though not in the bedrooms of the main castle. Visitors beyond the house party do not stay overnight, so the rest of the guest list books hotels in Aberdeen or nearby. For those staying on, the castle arranges Highland Games on the lawn, whisky tasting and falconry with local partners, and Castle Fraser, Craigievar and Royal Deeside are within easy reach.
Parkland for portraits and an outdoor ceremony
The grounds are on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, rated outstanding for their artistic and architectural interest; the Old Statistical Account of 1796 credits their improvement to Mr Gordon of Cluny, one of the Barons of the Exchequer. The hire includes private use of the grounds for photographs, and the useful parts are close to the house. The willow planted ponds on the front lawn give the view of the entrance front in the photograph above, nineteenth century Wellingtonias, among the earliest planted in Scotland, stand among the specimen trees, and rhododendrons line the old beech lanes of the park.
Reaching Sauchen, and the end of the night
Aberdeen Airport is the nearest airport and Kintore the nearest railway station; Edinburgh and Glasgow are about three hours away by road. Satnav tends to lead drivers to the back entrance, while Google Maps finds the front door. The front lawns are an approved helicopter landing site, about ten minutes’ flying from Aberdeen.
Last orders are at 11.45pm for a midnight finish, and fireworks, from approved suppliers only, must end by 11pm. Confetti is natural petals, thrown outdoors. Evening taxis need booking well ahead, from firms in Inverurie and Aberdeen. Outside the full weekend, a ceremony alone is possible at weekends from October to March or midweek from April to September, and outside suppliers are welcome once approved and insured.
See more Aberdeenshire wedding venues, the United Kingdom Wedding Atlas and our guide to castle wedding venues in the UK, or watch Reel Weddings’ film of Naomi and Ross’s wedding at Cluny.
The verdict
Cluny rewards couples who want the ceremony, the drinks, the dinner and the night’s sleep all inside one historic building, with a family still living in it. It asks guests to travel to rural Aberdeenshire, and it asks the couple to plan two nights at least, so even a small wedding becomes a weekend.
The decision to make first is the guest list: 90 or fewer dine in the Tenants’ Hall beneath the chapel, and more than that takes dinner out to a marquee on the lawn. Read the Cluny Castle profile, and once the numbers are settled, check your date.
