A pub in Cardiff apologised to a group of seven trainee priests who were refused service after staff thought they were a stag party group in fancy dress.

However, once staff at The City Arms realised their mistake the men were absolved and offered a free round of drinks.

According to the Archdiocese of Cardiff, the seminarians had gone to the pub to celebrate the ordination of a colleague wearing their clerical garb.

On arrival they were told by a barman that the pub did not serve large groups in fancy dress.

The archdiocese said they had started to leave when another staff member said he believed they were real priests and invited them back in for a free drink.

"We'd like to thank The City Arms for being good sports through all of this and their kind gesture to our seminarians," the blog post said.

It added the priests had initially thought the bartender was joking when he mistook them for a stag party.

Posting on Twitter, the pub said it was "a slight misunderstanding from us but everyone was happy in the end."