If you are visiting the Mourne Mountains and looking for somewhere good to eat, Newcastle punches well above its weight. Here are the places we send guests to.
Brunel's is comfortable and unfussy, with a touch of vintage charm and some of the best cocktails in town. The kitchen does clever things with local fish — pan-roasted hake with asparagus and cured salmon has been a fixture.
Quinns has the nineteenth-century interior to match its pub-classics menu. A pint of Guinness, decent bar food, and live music most weekends.
For fresh seafood, The Mourne Seafood Bar is the obvious choice. Family-run for over thirty years, serving locally landed fish, steamed mussels and very good fish and chips, with a wine list to match.
Two hundred years old and the sort of pub you wish was your local. The Maghera Inn does warm service, steaks worth ordering and a properly poured pint.
Great Jones sits in the centre of Newcastle with a mix of local and international dishes, craft beer and a good wine list. The seafood chowder with homemade wheaten bread is the order.
Villa Vinci is a relaxed Italian in the middle of town. Straightforward, generous and reliable.
Newcastle is five minutes away, but there are nights when nobody wants to move. The bar and dining room at The Briers are one open-plan space, and the bar is licensed but stocked by you — at supermarket prices rather than bar prices. Across a weekend with a full house that adds up to a great deal more than most people expect.
If you would rather someone else cooked, we work with a local catering partner who can do anything from a grazing table to a full sit-down meal.
Either way, ask us when you arrive. We keep an eye on what is open and what is worth booking — and a table for a large group in Newcastle is worth arranging well ahead, particularly at weekends and in summer.
The Briers is on Middle Tollymore Road, five minutes from Newcastle by car and a half-hour walk if you would rather leave it there.
Nine bedrooms, every one en suite, sleeping up to 23. A licensed bar you stock yourself, a snug, and two hot tubs and a barrel sauna in an acre of grounds.
The whole house is £2,000 for a weekend — from £43 per person per night with 23 sharing — or £700 a night midweek, subject to availability. Single rooms midweek are from £80 a night, with a door code sent on the morning you arrive. Dogs are welcome.
