This impressive castle (or 'palace'), seat of the wealthy Prince Bishops, is well worth a visit, stuffed with original Spanish Masters paintings (especially the 12 Zubarans in the dining room), and various period-decorated living rooms and bedrooms. You can also visit the adjacent Walled Gardens which are pretty (but are set on a hill so have lots of steps). Best to buy a PS27 all-site ticket which includes all the attractions in Bishop Auckland including the Castle, and lasts 12 months so you can come back!

Amazing, such a great diverse selection of attractions, we purchased the full pass and managed to visit the Spanish Gallery and the Castle. We are already planning on going back next week to visit the mining museum. The staff were amazing and really made today special, well done! We also had tapas next to the gallery and coffee and cake at the castle, both delicious.

Had a lovely walk around the newly opened castle gardens and greenhouse. Amazing what they have reinstalled or recreated as there was always a garden there with plants in. It's a bit stony soil and felt like I should have brought my trowel and sieve to help them out a bit with the weeds. Very nice quality benches and stone steps within the garden. I do think the original steps leading into the garden need addressing for safety for everyone as they are not the best and caught me out so very wary with my elderly party that where here too total concentration and supervision needed don't want an trips.Maybe they have a plan for a ramp to be made further along to sweep round and join the garden entrance. The new toilet block is very nice and quality fixtures and fittings and hope people keep it that way for others to use due to the modern era of multi use facilities. A lot of negative and bad press about the Auckland Project but it takes a brave soldier to commit and invest in Bishop Auckland and create what we see and enjoy today. I bought my annual tickets and enjoying coming into Bishop and spending time seeing what is constantly evolving.

The redevelopment of the Castle by the Auckland Project is a triumph. Much more to see and learn about the individual bishops who lived in the castle. We were pleased to see that more rooms were open to view and welcomed the new information about 20th century bishops who championed workers' rights and social issues. Excellent artefacts in the faith museum. Definitely worth buying the annual pass for all attractions. We made two visits over the weekend and only saw the castle, Faith Museum and the viewing tower. Looking forward to seeing the Spanish and Mining art galleries, the walled garden and parkland. Good cafe at the Castle.

Only walked the grounds but an excellent place for a dog walk and or picnic. Lovely scenery and well maintained paths. They often have festivals or special events which are well run. The walled garden, museum and tower are excellent additions

The castle is set close by an attractive deer park which includes historical ruins and the external attractions also include formal gardens. Currently there is an active archaeological dig taking place and I found that fascinating as I was always a fascinated viewer of Time Team. The Faith museum is fascinating and has some interesting exhibitions. The ones relating to Celtic, Roman and Anglo Saxons periods were of particular interest as were the exhibits relating to the various religious persecution through UK history. Some parts of the Castle/Chapel were a little hard for my husband to negotiate in his wheelchair, but the staff were very helpful not only offering with guidance and advice but physically helping us get around when the need arose. The staff seemed very enthusiastic about their work at the Museum and are very well informed in relation to the exhibits and local history. We had a lovely time there. There was just too much to see in the one visit and we plan to return again and complete our tour of the Castle.