Mercure Blackburn Dunkenhalgh Hotel & Spa

Resort

The hotel was clean and the staff very polite and friendly. That was the good. The room (74) left a lot to be desired. The double bed was in fact two singles pushed together. The mattress was old and lumpy and the headboards didn't even meet with the bed. The bathroom smelled musty and was very cramped. The shower temperature wavered between sufficiently warm to decidedly cool and the shower curtain did its best to take up most of the space. It's an old building, but even ghosts would struggle to put up with the creaks and bangs as other guests drifted back to their rooms and at one point, somebody ran the tap, most likely to brush their teeth, but it sounded like they had a jet plane running on idle. I won't be staying here again.

Looks a nice place didn't stay for the night. Only attending a speed awareness course in a function room. Seemed a nice place to stay though.

We stayed in a privilege room which was lovely, nicely decorated and contemporary with good facilities. Bathroom was a nice big size with bath and a shower, and toiletries provided, as well as non-alcoholic drinks in the mini bar and espressos. Staff were exceptionally helpful and pleasant, and really worked hard to make our stay a good one. The food was also delicious! First night admittedly the meat in our mains was slightly overdone, but the second night everything was PERFECT and the food was delicious! Plus good value for money — we had meal allowances of £22 each per night and got a three course meal for that from the specials. We will definitely be coming here again!

Awful bar service. Dirty glasses and filthy toilets. Shame because the meal at the pink tribute was really good.

Very friendly staff and generally a lovely venue. Very conveniently placed, being only just off the motorway, but no traffic noise. Ample parking. Spa area is excellent with a great variety of steam rooms and a reasonable gym with a good range of classes as well as adequate equipment and machines for those who want to do their own thing. Good choices available for breakfast and apart from the need for a bit of decorating that needs doing here and there, which doesn't detract from the stay, I couldn't fault the experience. Will happily return.

Great place. Really nice and helpful staff. Very well maintained and clean. Great spa facilities.

A stunning hotel, in stunning grounds and with beautiful facilities. Pity it's not further afield, making it look out of place next to a motorway outside Blackburn. The rooms are arranged like little cottages, beautifully decorated and are HUGE! The staff are very polite, we'll presented and very knowledgeable. My only negative was that, living in hotels Monday to Friday, Id rather not have a stranger in my room every day. Every single day I put a "do not disturb" hanger on the door, I came back to my room tidied, includung my own property, toiletries replaced and the "dnd" hanger placed back inside the room. Besides that, a pleasure.

We had a room in the courtyard it was a little small however perfectly acceptable. Staff were very helpful during our stay. The pool and spa facilities were clean and well set up. The hotels location was excellent for our circumstances.

Very lovely typical mansion turned into a hotel. Some buildings have been added, so it's a very big hotel now. It has a very nice spa and a pool. The restaurant is rather good with some traditional English dishes.

Brilliant service, was upgraded to executive suite as a problem with our room. Staff so friendly, hotel lovely and clean and welcoming. Would definitely come back again.

Was good value and generally the staff were very nice. Our meal service was an utter disaster — total cock up by kitchen and front of house meant we were still waiting for ages. Most of the food served was very nice though, but I'd advise to keep an eye on the service rather than wait expecting them to be on top of it! Besides that, we had a lovely stay, enjoyed the spa and had a fantastic massage!

Nice place, standard food, inconsistent amenities in rooms. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don't. There is nothing interesting within a reasonable walking distance so I would only stay there if I was in the area for work (as I was) but I wouldn't go for a weekend break.

The place seemed like a nice venue to host a variety of occasions… weddings, conference, meetings or any sort of hire. It's a rather large place with plenty of parking and although I didn't try out any of the facilities on offer. They looked good.

Really enjoyed our big family get-together weekend at the Dunkenhalgh. Special mention to Resh who entertained and charmed us with his card tricks at breakfast!

Fairly standard large hotel. Food is nice but isn't anything special and the decor is quite dated. The rooms are fairly large and get cleaned daily which makes it nice to come back to. There isn't a lot to do in the area and it's a 10 minute walk to the nearest town. Sometimes things in the rooms don't work properly.

Set in a beautiful listed building. The staff were fantastic. Breakfast was superb, room & bed excellent and the spa enjoyable. Would definitely stay again.

Leisure centre member. Pool just the right temperature. Gym has a good choice of equipment and weight training stations. Solarium has five different steam, sauna experiences which are heavenly. Lovely friendly staff always happy to help.

Service was excellent. Rooms clean and well presented. Plenty of options for breakfast. Located close to the industrial estate I was visiting which was incredibly convenient. Only lacked power sockets and ethernet ports in the room near the beds (a lot of hotels are guilty of this though). Wi-Fi was excellent though so it was not a huge loss.

Warm comfortable room. Decent bathroom. Big beds. Plentiful breakfast. Pleasant staff. What's not to like.

We got married here 18 months ago and have not been back until a few days ago for a friends wedding. This place is great for a wedding as when we got married they made the day run amazingly. The staff are great and very professional. Food was great and everything was spot on. My only issue was that we was unable to stay in the bridal suite as the wedding the night before had extended their stay? Bit unfair but it’s done now and didn’t spoil our big day.

The hotel is situated within a gigantic English castle surrounded by a spectacular countryside. It has a spa, a multitude of event rooms, two restaurants and other secondary services in the room. The food very good and elaborate and the staff friendly and willing to help. The negative points: many of the rooms had outdated furnishings, there was noise from plumbing and the closest to the spa along with the hallway smelt of the chlorine from the pool. The final price that we had to pay, did not correspond with the price they offered on the Internet because we had to pay a bond of two hundred pounds of which we had not had news until the day of the confirmation of reservation.

The majority of the staff were friendly and approachable, although the gentleman on reception should probably stop greeting guests with the line 'what do you want' The spa needs updating, feature showers do not work and many tiles have fallen off in the steam rooms. Part of the sauna wall came off and hit my head. The soothing whale sounds in the steam room were lovely. The food was really nice, however it was not what we ordered.

Very good stay. Friendly and helpful staff. Hotel and facilities clean and tidy. He hotel looks a little tired and in need of a spot of paint and new carpets in places. Spa facilities and treatment very good. Evening meal was good. Let down by the cheese board. Only one cheese came that was on the menu, the other ones were completely different, crackers were a mix, some a horrible garlic powder flavour and the walnut and celery salad was missing the celery and salad. Breakfast very good.

Pleasant staff, nice surroundings, lovely breakfast. The rooms we stayed in were a little jaded. One the room heaters didn't work so we had to call reception who kindly brought up a portable heater. We were using the whole pool just after 9 on the Saturday morning and at least 2/3 of it was cordoned off for an aqua aerobics class — one of the people in the class was outside of the cordoned off area and occupying an area in the remaining 1/3 that was supposed to be left free for swimming… That made the swimming area even smaller! Some of the people doing the aqua class seemed to be annoyed that other people were using the other 1/3 of the pool and splashing around etc. This shared use of the pool should probably be made clearer at the time of the booking and the people doing the class should be made aware that people including kids can still have fun in the remaining 1/3 of the pool.

A very pleasant relaxing night away, with superb service and excellent quality food. I had booked the spa time together package for me and my daughter and we loved it, from the spa treatments, to the pool, the restaurant, the friendly staff and the privilege room, which was spacious, clean and well equipped as well as being very peaceful. The bed was excellent, we had a great night's sleep. The evening dinner was superb, the food was top notch and the service excellent. The breakfast was good with plenty of choice for all tastes. All areas of the hotel are well staffed, managed superbly and very clean.

Attended a function and booked a room for the night. Function Room was beautiful, as was the food, and my vegetarian dish was very nicely presented in a separate bowl but on the same plate with the accompanying vegetables, which part was the same as everyone else. Room very large and comfortable, with a bath — the older hotels have this, but the newer ones only showers — which I personally do not like. The check in staff were friendly, helpful and efficient.

Lovely room, though some distance from reception and restaurant. Very comfortable beds and great shower. Helpful staff. Minor flaws; no bathrobes though described as part of exec room extras; breakfast buffet layout could be improved by separating cold counter from hot thus splitting the queues and reducing waiting.

This was a fabulous location and hotel for a wedding. The staff were friendly, polite and helpful. The food was fabulous at the wedding breakfast and buffet. There was plenty of choice at a buffet style breakfast. Unfortunately we didn't experience the spa. We were able to check in early because the wedding was before 2.00pm but this was not made clear until our arrival, even though we had made a couple of phone calls beforehand.

I was staying for two nights for a friend's wedding and everything went incredible smoothly given just how many weddings were taking place that weekend (4 I think! ). Staff were professional, welcoming and helpful both on reception, in the restaurants and bars and in the spa/gym area. The main concerns, however, were to do with the hotel building itself. It felt very tired with regard to decor (carpets are worn, walls need painting) and could do with a bit of TLC. The room (executive) was ridiculously hot (to the point of discomfort on our first night) with no air conditioning or fan. The minute you walk into the executive wing of the hotel the heat hits you so think this should be sorted as a matter of priority given a premium is paid to have one of these rooms. We also found the bar and food costs rather over inflated, but the quality was pretty good and the location made it worthwhile.

We were attending a friends wedding & I have to say the day overall was excellent, the grounds are well maintained, the food very good & the staff could not have been more attentive. We upgraded our room to an "Executive" room, which was tucked away in a wing as far from reception as possible. The room was a little tired and the furniture quite dated. The following morning we used the spa, which was very good.

We needed a place to relax after some hectic travel, and this was it! Beautiful location, the building itself is impressive and classical, the room was lovely and spacious, the bed was comfortable, all the room facilities were first class. The spa was excellent, with different sauna experiences, and warm water pool in a comfortably warm space, every service you could imagine. The food and the bar were excellent, the staff was well trained, friendly and helpful. Altogether, a well run establishment.

The drive towards the building was a very pleasant one. The grounds were well kept and parking was easy. The welcome at reception was friendly and we were upgraded too. The room was excellent and the spa facilities were of great standard. Breakfast was perfect and again staff were really friendly. Really enjoyed our stay, we look forward to returning soon.

Stay was fantastic apart from other customer food being on my bill. It clearly wasnt my signiture. Totally confused about how my room credit was deducted. Will have to wait and check my bank statements to make sure I was not charged twice for room credit.

I was extremely impressed by the Mercure Blackburn. Not just by the actual building and facilities, but also by the staff. They were welcoming and helpful, and provided an excellent service throughout the day. I would be very happy to visit again.

Was visiting relatives with my son in October. We had a fantastic time. All staff were extremely helpfull and nothing was too much trouble. The food was great and breakfast was so good my son tried pretty much everything. The ladies at the front desk were so friendly Barry drew them pictures and had a cheeky apple most times on the way past. We just missed breakfast one morning due to taking too long in the pool, but one of the staff was very kind and managed to get Barry some melon and strawberries. We really did have great stay and can't wait till our next visit. Thanks again to all who made it such an enjoyable break!

The staff at the Dubkenhalgh were absolutley lovely and very friendly! The breakfast provided with he room hire was delicious and there was a wide variety of choice. The rooms are very spacious, although ours seemed a little dated although after later speaking to a member of staff I found out the rooms were being updated and the one we stayed in just hadn't been done yet. I would definitely stay again!

Nice place. Good rooms. Decent breakfast.

I loved this hotel! It looks like an old castle, has a fascinating history, the grand staircase is awesome, the staff was top notch, and the gym is huge. The breakfasts were very good. The bar was nice. I would definitely stay here again. Only one down side — we could not seem to find a hotel in the UK that had two double or queen beds like they do in the US. We had to book a "family room" and that meant that the extra bed was an absolutely awful and small fold out couch. The mattress on the fold out was so thin that my son could feel every spring and bar in the mattress. However, every single hotel we stayed in had the same set up so this hotel was no different than any of the others in that regard.

Great venue, staff very helpful, Rooms clean an quiet. Bar price's on the high side.

Staff very helpful, very friendly. Events team (esp. Karen) can't be praised enough! Recommended for functions! A+.

I have given it a liked score as for overall comfort, facilities etc. I found it to be very good. The room was very clean and with a comfortable bed. A nice sized en-suite with bath and shower although the floor needed finishing as only about half of it had been grouted. Free Wi-Fi (if you were in range in your room) amazing settings and the spa on site is a bonus (althuogh only being there for one night I didn't use it). The food is a little on the expensive side for what it is but I tried a pasta carbonara dish with poached egg. The pasta and sauce was cooked perfectly and very tasty, the poached egg could have done with a little longer as some of it was uncooked. For me, however, the down side came at about 9pm. Quietly sitting in my room working and watching the tv, the door to the adjoining room was tried by the people next door. Fortunately I had bolted it on my side so wasn't further disturbed by it. The "couple" then decided to plug their mp3 player into the TV and play music at a volume which I could listen to in my room but not so loud as to be annoying at this stage. Although they had, to me, a reasonable taste in music, the accompanying grunts, groans and moans were a little distracting.

For £70 a night I exspect alot more. Had better stays in £20 B&B's. No Wi-Fi, rude staff, terrible parking, over priced bar, generally run down. Decorated in the style of a council run retirement home. Lights, windows, key card and much more all failed to work correctly. Avoid this hotel, good breakfeast mind.

4 star yet no wi fi in rooms, chronic parking, over priced bar and front office staff who have take it or leave it attitude.