Seaham Hall ploughs a lonely furrow of luxury on Durham’s Heritage Coast. But it does so with such charm and conviction you can’t help but be won over. Here, the bedrooms blaze with colour and invention, the spa always seems to be buzzing and the staff won’t just give you directions if you’re lost, they’ll take you where you need to go. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the quality of chef Damian Broom’s cooking. Overshadowed by the popularity of the spa, it flies in under the radar at the end of each day and quickly becomes its highlight — closely followed by beach-combing for the local sea glass. Both eye-catching and unexpected, this weathered glass is all that remains of a long-vanished bottle factory, and it makes the perfect Seaham souvenir.
Overall score 8/10
Main photo: guests at Serenity Spa at Seaham Hall (Infinite 3D Ltd)
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Rooms and suites
Score 9/10
There are no standard rooms at Seaham Hall. In the main Regency house and its modern extension all the accommodation is in suites, while four contemporary self-catering villas have recently been added in the 37-acre grounds. Pick the latter if the weather’s warm: so you can sip your early morning cuppa on the private terrace, overlooking the North Sea. Otherwise, the hall is the place to be — ideally in a Garden suite, one of which comes with its own hot tub and a butterfly motif fluttering over its headboard. The double-decker Ada Lovelace suite is a stunner too. Named after Lord Byron’s mathematician daughter, it features twin slipper baths overlooking the garden.
Food and drink
Score 8/10
There are two restaurants, but don’t be distracted by the pan-Asian Ozone, which serves the Serenity Spa. Damian Broom’s Dining Room is the main attraction — and it’s a proper, gastronomic treat. Pigeon and prune; salt-aged duck with roasted squash and fermented garlic; quince and pistachio frangipane: he and his team are dab hands not just at bringing bright, clear flavours together in interesting ways, but adding texture too — without ever labouring the point. Heaven knows why their work is not more widely known.
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What else is there?
Score 9/10
For many County Durham locals Seaham is principally a lovely spa with some accommodation attached, and as you explore its many saunas and gleaming teak-floored massage rooms, it’s not hard to see why it’s built such a loyal clientele. Among its newly-added treatments is a 90-minute Ishga Five-Senses Sound Ritual, which combines a hot-stone massage with other pampering therapies set to an ocean soundtrack of sighing sands, crashing waves and rustling sea grass. Meanwhile, beyond the hammam and the 20m indoor pool, a Zen garden beckons with relaxation beds and a bubbling infinity pool.
Where is it?
Score 7/10
The really extraordinary thing about Seaham Hall is not that Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke married here in 1815. It’s that over the following 200 years an entire industrial revolution swept over the surrounding countryside, and then disappeared. Now Seaham’s long beach and open fields are improbably serene, given the factories and mines that once crowded the view. It’s a canny place to catch your breath between day trips to Durham cathedral and the living museum of the north at Beamish.
Price B&B doubles from £295
Restaurant three-course à la carte dinner menu £90
Family-friendly Y
Dog-friendly N
Accessible N
seaham-hall.co.uk
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