Eye on Venues
Where The Mountains Of Mourne Sweep Down To The Inn In the wake of a summer where staycations became the norm for many (...but not all), we’ve all learnt a bit more about the towns, villages and countryside that surrounds us here in Northern Ireland. But even for those of us who think we’ve been there and done that, there are still little surprises lurking out there.
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ake Castlewellan. It’s a place we hadn’t been to in many long years, tending instead to head on down the road to the bright lights and fleshpots of Newcastle. What we didn’t reckon on were the hidden delights of Hillyard House, a new hotel in the centre of Castlewellan village and right outside the entrance gates to another joy that we’d forgotten about – Castlewellan Forest Park. In case any of you haven’t been there for a while, or haven’t been at all, the Forest Park is simply stunning, perhaps even better at this time of the year, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, as John Keats described it. If you’re there, take a walk around its lake, enjoy the trees, and castle, the hills and all that the park can offer. But, if you decide to stay, make a bee line for Hillyard House. Opened during the pandemic, it’s never had a chance to operate without some form of restrictions and it’s faced lengthy periods of closure. But this is a place that puts the ‘h’ into hospitality, a place that makes you feel welcome and a place that you won’t want to leave. Developed by local businessmen on the site of a former town hostel in the centre of the village (there’s plenty of parking outside the
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door and around the area), it’s not big – it has 20 guest rooms – but it’s very good at what it does. Let’s start with the rooms. Our’s looked out over the main street towards the splendour of the Mournes. It was spacious, individually styled, meticulously clean and, perhaps more importantly of all, very comfortable.
Hillyard House Castlewellan General Manager Suzanne Kidd
