Dobbies Garden Centre in Northumberland

Not a lot to say about what was formerly Highly Gate Garden Centre, unfortunately the current owner (Dobbies) is now closed down.

Loved it but its now closed, another garden centre taking over soon

Highly expensive unless you caught closing down sale. Look forward to new venture plus always get my fruit & Veg from the family shop outside - lovely people

Large free car park, choice of refreshment outlets. Garden centre element in a state of flux as change of operator is pending January 2025.

It was a good garden centre but it's closing down very soon

Don't bother going it's closing down there's nothing left in the shop

Shame Dobbies is closing but did make use of the 50% closing down sale

Sadly this garden center is closing down but will reopen in February 2025 under a different company name. Other concessions are located here

Sorry to see this place is closing down

As the garden centre is closing and they have a half price sale on,the shelves were virtually empty.

Love this place ..great cafe ...big selection of plants and seeds and lovely gifts. Staff always very friendly. Shame it's closing down.

First visit but won't be my last. Large choice of things available from plants to jewellery. Also food available, butchers, greengrocers etc

Wide range of products in addition to garden-related products, including food, and pet-related items

After braving the storm yesterday, we had a lovely festive afternoon at Dobbies, Heighlygatee. All credit due to Scarlet, Sam & her team who looked after us in the restaurant, - the afternoon tea was excellent. Equally Hazel & all the elves in the grotto - Santa Claus was the best- so overall a happy day for three generations!

I booked Christmas lunch for two. The staff were welcoming and friendly and the table was set with crackers and Christmas decorations. Unfortunately the dinner was dreadful. Probably the worst meal I have ever had. The food was lukewarm, served on cold plates, the vegetables were soft and soggy, the turkey was dry and tasteless. The whole thing was swimming in congealed gravy! It was quite obvious that the food had been cooked before (maybe days before!) and reheated. We just could not eat it. It was very obvious to staff that there was a problem when they collected the plates. We opted to have the Christmas pudding and asked for ice cream as an extra. It was not great but edible. When we came to pay we were told we would just be charged for one meal - £17. I pointed out that I had paid £10 deposit so was then charged for two teas and two puddings £10.25 a total of £20.25. Instead of a nice pre Christmas treat, it was a really bad experience.

Meh. Picked up a John Lewis order and went to the "Restaurant" for lunch (on a Sunday). Two of us, plus 11 month old. £35 for two meals, two coffees and two bottles of water. For some reason the food was out under lights and in gastronorms but they still took our order and brought the food over, which took 10 minutes after paying. Layout and menus were literally all over the place and queuing system was insane. Our table was dirty with one wet streak where a cloth had been used to wipe a line of the last customers' detritus away. I did the rest. My roast beef was a decent sized portion but fully cooked and dry. Veg, gravy and meat were lukewarm at best and fairly tasteless. Yorkshire pudding was cold. Roast potatoes were cold, one was yellow and mushy inside, the other was white and mealy and gave me the impression it was reheated at least once. I left about half of my food. Wife's pie was similar and flooded with gravy, at least three times as much as me; ironic as I like gravy and she doesn't. No soft furnishings meant the room was echoey and loud. OK for younger kids (3-12?) I guess, not great for a baby. The garden centre is tolerable for a grumpy man like myself but the "restaurant" (it's a cafe) should be avoided. We've been to the coffee bar near the tills a few times and similar experiences: generally not clean, crockery mismatched and dirty-looking and generally slow for no apparent reason. Only worth going if you are getting a freebie with your Dobbies card. The Dobbies card is ok value but the place is expensive to begin with so swings and roundabouts.

Sarah ,and Michael and the staff are amazing they always take good care of us Festive dinner is lovely.

Used to be a really great well stocked garden centre, but now the place looks run down, about 80% of the outside display beds were empty, and what plants, trees and shrubs they did have were lying upside down or on there sides.

For 3rd consecutive visit the toilets are dirty and the cafe staff are sullen and happy to keep customers waiting while they chat. No dog free area in the cafe any more (allergy). Responses to some reviews on here being made by staff who can't count stars and don't see that reviews are negative.

Good garden centre to visit. Plenty of choice. Nice cafe.

Well. Laid out and spacious. Good access for wheelchairs /prams

This 1 star is for the cafe. Their cheese scone are disgusting I couldn't eat it. I asked a member of staff if he had any complaints about their scone which he replied always, i mentioned that i couldnt eat it as it was disgusting, I wasn't looking for a refund which by the way I wasn't offered but puzzled as to why they are still selling them.

Great centre with everything you could want for both home and garden.

Really good and good value lovely tea and scones Really knowledgeable staff when asking for advice xx

Good variety of goods, restaurant is really good and dog friendly

Lovely garden centre, with indoor and outdoor plants. Garden essentials, outdoor living essentials, pet a dog wild animal food. There is also an area containing a shoe shop, clothing, and the works. And a small Waitrose supermarket Plus, of course , cafe cakes and hot drinks. Friendly staff. Outside, there is a large area for walking or running your dog. The whole place is dog friendly.

Lovely store with a wide range of products lovely xmas decorations good cafe

Went for a Halloween event! It was great and sat in the cafe too after

absolutely dreadful,dogs barking yarking ,and that's in the restaurant and also cafe ,diabolical service never to return,1 cashier in both restaurant and cafe ,

Great to be able to take the pup in

Your one-stop garden shop including stationery, groceries, cafes and more.

Always well presented and a full range of garden related products. Covid restrictions in place. Sainsburys have now a mini supermarket within the store. Vegetable outlet has reorganised and also covid compliant. Lot of new plants and bulbs arrived, have a carribean tulip, exclusive to dobbies. Nice selection of seasonal plants and shrubs, sale on also. Popped in today for a quick look an coffee. Plants look good sale on of upto 50% off. Stock now has much Christmas items on display.

Has a small farmers market outside that place is amazing and the dobbies is quite large and staff are quite nice their plants seem to be in better nick than the average dobbies

Nice garden centre with a great cafe.

A large garden centre with a good selection of stock. However the cafe was very disappointing, overpriced and poor selection. There was even a plastic instant porridge pot on sale for £3!! Incredible!

Huge garden centre, you could spend hours here

Excellent site with items to suit everyone as well as an excellent range of plants. Xmas trees and decorations... Real tree prices very competitive. Extensive range of presents and 3rd party stores within the main building. Great play area for the young ones, next to the cafe. Worth a visit!!

Really large store with lots of garden and household goods. Large restaurant and kiddies play area. There is also a dinosaur miniture golf putting course that is great for the kids. It was closed when I was there so if you intend going for that then it maybe better ringing first to see if it's open.

Did not have what I wanted but vast array of products and eateries

Love to go to what I call highleygate To get plants and dinner

Arrived yesterday at 9am,there was food all over the floor.Cone on dobbues thus isn't good enough

Very friendly staff and always helpful. Also have a nice cafe and restaurant. Plenty of great plants , plus other franchise shops

Lovely restaurant. Yummy cakes. Excellent choice of garden plants and furniture. Love the loyalty card....it allows you 2 free coffees a month and discounts all for £15 a year.

Soft play is fab staff are so accommodating. Cleaner makes sure areas are kept clean just fab.

Garden centre is still decent to pop in for a wander but no where near as good as it used to be sadly, had a coffee today in the entrance cafe and my wife and i both left half of it. Should have kept "Costa" i think as was much better imo

Good cafe. Great choice of menu. Lunch was excellent Good small shops Good choice of flowers and shrubs

Actually loads to see here, plants are a bit expensive but there's loads of stuff to look over and shop.

Nice relaxed large garden centre with a restaurant and mini golf.

Plenty of parking. Staff friendly and helpful. Go choice of tools and plants.

I've been here several times in the last year, the latest being today. I have to say that it's a shadow of what it used to be when it was Heighley Gate Garden centre which sold an excellent selection of things you'd expect from a garden centre at reasonable prices and had a really good café serving really good food at reasonable prices. Quality and value for money are sadly a thing of the past here.

Very large garden centre, supplying many more ranges of products, not directly associated with gardens! Delighted to see a display of Christmas cards available on the 17th August! A reminder to start thinking about my annual Christmas letter!! Managed to find an attractive plant to give to our hosts for the day. If only Dobbies had some branches down south! Acres of free parking, which always helps!

Biggest Dobbies I've been in, loads of different areas and products. It need a bit of refresh in some areas. Tons of parking. The cafe to the right of the tills inside is nicer than the one further round to the back - but the back one has around 4 tables with a decent view.

I went to recycle pots.....no signage, had to ask three members of staff and eventual found a cardboard container “hidden” at the side of a shed, almost as far as you can get from the entrance!! Why not have the depository as you enter so you aren't left carrying what you want to recycle? I just wanted to leave by the time I'd found it, as I’d spent time looking for the recycle point that I’d otherwise have spent looking round the garden centre.

Visited heighleygate to pick up a couple of plants which had been put aside for us. While there we also bought three others helped by Ethel and Steve who went out of their way to find the right ones for us. Give them a gold star!

Excellent centre with great cafe

Went to play crazy golf with family was fun

It's a good place to visit with a good cafe and a good selection of plants and garden equipment plus loads more

Pop in here at least once a month to have lunch and buy stuff for the garden. Good range of products in a nice environment you can potter around even when its a rainy day. However, today was really annoying as a dog yapped almost non-stop in the restaurant's designated dog friendly area. Then as we were leaving, after our lunch, it cocked its leg and peed on the wall of the ramp at the restaurant ''entrance''. Think we will start eating somewhere else!

Beautiful big place every thing under one roof.

Stopped at Debbie's on way from Longframlington, the restaurant is right at the back of the site, we decided to have the fish and chips with mushy peas, it took some time from ordering for the meal to arrive at our table, when it eventually arrived it was so disappointing. The fish was like cardboard very dry and looked as it had been under the heat lamps all day, the mushy peas were a solid lump of congealed peas. All in all a very disappointing £32 true value was less than half this. I will never go back there or any other Dobbies in the near future

it's a garden centre. quite a big one. the fruit and veg 'stall' outside is good but massively overpriced but I guess that's not surprising in a garden centre nr morpeth

Very nice and clean, went to restaurant for a meal and very generous portions. Shop well sorted and staff helpful.

Huge beast of a garden centre. Very good.

It's such a shame huge place but quite tired looking Maybe week day was so quiet

Good offers and nice plants just what you expect from a garden centre

Great selection of plants and other items, restaurant was alright. Great place for a cheap day out when the weather is rubbish!

Visited today for coffee and a cake with my hubby and 2 dogs.Excellent service and delicious coffee and cake.Enjoyed it so much we joined their card system so will be back soon.

visited small soft play area today ideal for under 5's good coffee and cakes , selection of clothing and toy stores within garden centre , fruit shop outside

Took our grandchild and she loved the variety of flowers and plants. Loved the softplay.Good selection of food at the cafe.

Love this place has something for everyone coffee shop & restaurant if you want food too

clean tidy and pleasant environment

Massive place, could walk miles just to get to the restaurant but loads to see, we had a coffee, tea and two scones with jam cost just over £11. There is also a soft play area for toddlers. Pavers, the works and a few others have stores just before restaurant. Parking is free with many disabled places. Waitrose shopping inside but quite expensive although nice if looking for something different. There is a lovely fruit and veg shop/stand outside main entrance which has loads of choice

Dobbies has everything, plants, DIY, cafes and retail shops, a whole day shopping experience, with friendly and pleasant staff. What more could you want.

Helpful staff, great selection and decent prices. Dog friendly

Food disgraceful for the price. Scones £5.99! They were dry and stale. Baked potato stone cold. £2.25 for a can of Fanta?!! Very little choice. Would not recommend wasting your money

There is literally everything you need, from real to artificial flowers, variety of garden tools and garden ornaments as well as food shopping within the shop.

Huge with Cafe, restaurant, playgrounds and everything one could need for the garden. Plus pet shop, food and fruit and veg, clothing and accessories. Could have spent all day there.

Wow !!! What a gardeners dream every plant you could need and very well tended and displayed enticingly. Huge building easy to wander staff very helpful and had a knowledge of plants. So much more than a garden centre with Pro Cook Pavers Cotton Traders cafe restuarant and a Dinosaur play area that would delight any child ( and adult) an out of the blue visit which was a joy 😂

Great place.. something for everyone.. we are signed up for the Dobbies Club so free drinks in the cafe. The cafe staff all deserve a mention...well done guys great service.. especially Michael 👍 If you fancy a cake, sandwich or biscuits etc make sure you have lots of cash or a healthy bank balance and a hankie for the eye watering prices. Mind you it's what we know and expect from Dobbies. But don't be put off by that...it's a great place with lots of tempting stuff to buy. All good.

Great store and brilliant stopping of spot when heading north

Expensive but it is a garden centre. However, the worst part is the customer service from the staff. They are appalling. Whether you are buying garden stuff or using the food hall. They stand around in teams just chatting to each other. Last treat we went and spoke to a group in the ‘ help’ stand asked where something was , having first had to interrupt their conversation , only to be directed to the third aisle and on the right after the something or other. Not I’ll show you. And today went to buy some food only for it to be dragged across the conveyor belt which was covered in soil. She couldn’t be bothered to clean it down as she was chatting. Just rubbish customer service

We visit often and have realized the guy in the cafe is letting the company down. We have seen him talk about customers behind their backs and is super rude, no customer service whatsoever. His face just looks so sick to be there. He needs retraining or a new job as he makes the atmosphere in there flat.

A shadow of its former self, really gone downhill since it was bought by Dobbies, the garden furniture is especially poor, cheap rubbish. This visit will be our last

We like Dobbies, a lovely atmosphere, nice restaurant, good soft play for grandson, trouble is your wallet is lighter when you leave, lots of irresistible stuff

We went for the crazy golf, my kids loved it would definitely go again nice and peaceful

It has everything, including Waitrose and Dinosaurs.

Always a pleasure to shop, peruse and purchase always satisfying.

Big garden centre, does a fine breakfast

Very nice overall, main issue were the toilets as all were horrendous

Nice place quite a walk to back restaurant, but there's a coffee shop to near entrance . Big place and choice and is dog friendly.

I would have given, five stars but for two things ,I do understand why the following are out of reach ,so be mindful this is not a complaint,growing up with children and grandchildren,the outdoors play area was a great draw ,it no longer exists ,would love to see it return ,plant prices are out of my range in most cases perhaps one day that will be different,I've bought many plants from here over the years, because the choice is very good,and the quality and help great 😃👍

Dog friendly shopping with a big dog friendly restaurant area. You can enjoy shopping with your dogs and enjoy the decorative garden.

Used the main cafe A bit disappointing got the lasagne and salad The salad consisted of lettuce only No tomatoes or cucumber Not value for money Very disappointing

Got everything I required, including coffee and cheese scones.

Lovely cafe in the main shop! Busy but staff are so friendly and helpful. Great visit

Very nice place to walk round and a very good lunch at a good price

Good value, with polite staff. The parking layout is a bit strange but probably ok when you get to know it.

A shadow of its former self. Plants not that great and fairly overpriced.

Used the disabled toilet today at dobbies it was absoloutly filthy wont be going back

Lovely breakfast and friendly staff