Nottingham Castle

You can put a seminar, launch, training day or reception inside a Grade I listed Ducal Palace on Castle Rock, with the city’s art galleries, grounds and skyline as the setting, and your guests can walk up from Nottingham’s train station and Old Market Square. Nottingham Castle is a museum and art gallery run within Nottingham’s city museums, alongside Wollaton Hall and Newstead Abbey. The venue says its history on the site goes back almost 1,000 years, from Norman stronghold to Stuart palace to today’s museum, and that the Ducal Palace replaced the medieval castle in 1679.

Event spaces and capacities

You get a choice of settings across one site, but you will need to ask the hire team for room-by-room capacities, because the castle does not publish a capacity chart, floor plans or room sizes. Its hire page lists the events it takes: wedding receptions, film and photography shoots, parties and sleepovers, corporate seminars, training and social events, and product and press launches. For weddings it offers places for photographs, drinks before the reception, the wedding breakfast and the evening reception.

The spaces the castle names on its own pages are inside the Ducal Palace and around it. The Art Gallery, also called the Long Gallery, was created in the 1870s; the venue says the museum opened there on 3 July 1878 as the first civic, publicly owned art museum outside London. The palace also holds the Nottingham Lace Gallery, the Early Nottingham Craft Gallery, the Collections Gallery, the Museum of the Mercian Regiment, the Rebellion Gallery and Robin Hood Adventures. Outside are the grounds, the visitor centre with a shop and café, an adventure play area, the caves under the rock, and Brewhouse Yard, a cottage museum at the foot of the site (postcode NG7 1FB). Treat this as a list of places to ask about, not confirmed event rooms.

To plan guest flow, you can use the castle’s own upper floor map, which places the Art Gallery along one side of the palace’s upper floor with the Collections Gallery, Lace Gallery and Early Nottingham Craft gallery beside it, reached by the north and south stairs or the lift. The maps show layout only, with no room sizes, so ask for measurements if you are planning staging or seating.

Getting there and parking

Your delegates can arrive on foot or by public transport, since the castle says it is within walking distance of Nottingham station and the Old Market Square; it does not give a walking time. There is no visitor parking on site, and the castle points visitors to the city council’s guide to public car parks in the city centre. Blue badge parking can be pre-booked by email, subject to space, but it is not offered on special event dates. The address is Lenton Road, Nottingham NG1 6EL.

Catering, AV and accommodation

The castle has two cafés on site with seating, one in the visitor centre, but it does not publish an event catering policy, an AV offer or a day delegate rate, and it does not list any bedrooms. For accessible places to stay nearby it refers visitors to Visit Nottinghamshire. Public opening hours are 11am to 4pm for the museum and grounds, so ask how evening hire works.

For guests with access needs, the museum has lift access to all public floors, accessible toilets in the museum and the visitor centre, and a Changing Places toilet with a height-adjustable bench (bring your own sling and register at the visitor centre). Wheelchairs can be borrowed, carers go free with a paying visitor, induction loops are fitted at each reception point, the shop and the café, and Braille guides cover the first-floor galleries. The caves can only be reached by steep steps with no lift. Some galleries have loud sound and large screens, and the castle publishes sensory maps for each floor.

What to ask before you book

• Which rooms in the Ducal Palace can be hired, and what is the seated and standing capacity of the Long Gallery and any other space you are offered?
• Can your event run after the 11am to 4pm public hours, and is the museum closed to visitors while you are in it?
• Where can your delegates park, given there is no visitor parking on site, and can blue badge spaces be held for a private event?
• Who provides the food and drink at a hired event, and are outside caterers allowed?
• Can your photographer or film crew work in the galleries and grounds, given the castle asks for commercial photography to be booked in advance and does not allow drones?
• Can a tour of the caves or Brewhouse Yard be added for your guests, and how will guests who cannot use steps be included?

Related on Events Review

• Conference venues in Nottingham
• Historic event venues
• Unusual event venues
• Wollaton Hall, another Nottingham museum on the same Rover Pass
• Albert Hall Conference Centre
• Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
• East Midlands Conference Centre
• Antenna
• Turn venue accessibility claims into a usable event plan
• Choose the venue around the event, not the headline capacity

Sources: hire, visit and getting here, accessibility, castle and grounds, museums and galleries, the Art Gallery, contact, upper floor sensory map, all on nottinghamcastle.org.uk, checked 6 November 2026.