Seeing the North-east coast with a short break at Seaham Hall

Seaham Hall, the Georgian country house on the Durham coast is rich in history. It’s where romantic poet Lord Byron was married to the owner’s daughter Anne Milbanke, it served as a hospital during World War One – and in 2026 celebrates 25 years as a grand five-star spa hotel.

It continues to move forward in style and facilities – particularly in the raft of luxury lodges that are drifting down the field towards the sea.

The hotel

Even Seaham Hall’s entrance hall has plenty to see

The grandiose house is actually a boutique hotel, relishing its history, with 24 lavishly decorated suites, including garden suites featuring gated private areas. Public areas are just as flamboyant. And there’s always something new.

Recently opened is a relaxing billiards room with views across the lawns. And the subterranean connection with the spa has a glass walkway with water splashing over the pebbles below. And a linking corridor is being decorated in an extravagant pattern of crashing waves. Newly created Harvey’s Bar is dark yet floral, a touch of Byron romance mixed with the speakeasy era, when the hall’s cellars fed a secret whisky route to America during the 1920s Prohibition era.

The lodges

The comforts of a coastal lodge

A project that was started several years ago is growing, expanding a collection of nine lodges to 24. Although they’re in sloping grassland just outside the hotel, they’re in a world of their own with magnificent sea views through mammoth windows and across huge decks.

The lodges are individually owned but go into a rental pool through the hotel. The smallest is the futuristic-looking Tideline, one bedroom and a large lounge with French windows opening onto a neat inset sitting area, itself opening onto a wider deck – like all the lodges, they have a private hot tub.

The others, called coastal lodges and named Seaglass, Beachfront and Bayfront, have two or three bedrooms, some with pergolas and outdoor tables and chairs. Ours had a fire pit and a barbecue. These are luxury places – the Tideline is £425,000 to buy – but all are available for short breaks, perfect retreats with full kitchens. All have stylish furniture and a big screen TV with Sky TV (including sports; I watched a late-season Premiership match!). A coastal lodge sleeping four starts at £395 per night, but with a three-night break for the price of two. The price includes unlimited use of the spa.

Sea and countryside views from the deck

The lodges also overlook St Mary’s Church, one of only 20 early Anglo-Saxon churches still standing. The lodges are set amongst colourful planting with wildflower banks and smart gravel paths which lead to a security gate opening onto the coast road across which are steps down to the beach.

The beach

The beauty of the beach, yards from your lodge

Seaham Beach is a long, deep beach backed by gnarled limestone cliffs with limestone pools in the sand. It’s known as the Glass Beach thanks to the endless pieces of wave-polished ‘seaglass’ due to the waste dumped here more than a century ago by what was one of the biggest bottle factories in Britain.

Crowds still gather to search for souvenirs, colourful scraps to turn into jewellery. A mile south of the hotel, a beautiful walk along firm sands, is the town of Seaham with plenty of coffee bars and shops. The beach is part of a five-mile stretch of sand that stretches all the way to Sunderland. There are sandy strolls and clifftop hikes, part of the King Charles III England Coast Path, which also takes in Durham Heritage Coast as it heads south, with a stirring 12-mile walk to the stirring harbour town of Hartlepool.

The food

The Dining Room comes with olives…

If you’re holidaying in a lodge, you’ll be tempted to eat there, yet you’ll also be tempted by the hotel’s three places to eat. The Dining Room is the grandest, high-ceilinged room, with a pair of enormous gold-plated chandeliers,  willow-patterned walls, and half a dozen real and ancient olive trees festooned with lights.

The menu, which regularly changes, is Mediterranean-influenced but with regional produce. Sicilian flatbread in one direction, lamb from the Nidderdale Valley in the Pennines in the other. Breakfast, included for hotel guests, is £25 for those in lodges but a treat, cereals and fruit to start, then lots of eggs, or salmon, or the plate-filling oak-smoked kipper from nearby Craster.

Geko is the spa’s Japanese dining experience

In the spa is Geko, a Japanese restaurant on the first floor that seems to float among the trees. Dishes include miso-marinated North Sea cod, stir-fried spicy crab rice topped with Loch Duart salmon and Yorkshire free range duck with barbecue sauce.

The third option is Harvey’s, serving pasta, burgers and smaller options such as stuffed focaccia, rich in local produce.

The Serenity Spa

The spa’s main pool room

One of the best. There’s a main indoor pool with a circular swimming area at one end lined with jets. Glass walls look over another new feature, the Zen Garden with three infinity hot pools protected from any troublesome sea breezes by greenery and stone walls.

It’s a magical world, particularly at dusk when the lights come on. Inside, there’s a sauna, a couple of steam rooms, chilly plunge pools and another hot pool with rocket-sized jets. Massages – not least the Ishga Deep Tissue Massage – and other treatments are excellent, in rooms with views across lawns and trees. And a smart gym.

The magical Zen Garden

Other things to do

Seaham Hall is only a 30-minute drive from Durham and its beautiful cathedral and cobbled streets. Tucked away in the middle of the city alongside the River Wear are the National Trust’s Crook Hall Gardens. A tip – members get free parking and, with the car park outside the garden entrance, you can take a walk into the historic city centre.

Hartlepool is also a half-hour drive, and its Headland peninsula is lovely for strolling walks with the Heugh Battery Museum on the spot where German warships attacked during World War One.

Sunderland is a swift drive, or 10 minutes by train from Seaham, and is filled with walks along the River Wear, seafront lookouts and the riverside Stadium Of Light, home of Sunderland FC. Newcastle is only 20 minutes longer by train, which, in the other direction, quickly gets to Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. Via Newcastle, it’s only around four hours to London’s King’s Cross.

The verdict

The hotel provides a beautiful backdrop to the lodges

Seaham Hall is a stunning place, and the coming lodges open it up to relaxed family gatherings close to a splendid coastline and with plenty of other places to visit. The lodges’ inclusion of entry to the spa with its swimming pool is a huge bonus and the restaurants are a good contrast to eating in or outside your lodge. https://seaham-hall.co.uk

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