Game from our namesake on the menu
February 26 2010
Above: Sourcing locally; The Bamburgh Castle Inn’s Sean Donkin (left) with chef David Barella (right) and Francis Watson Armstrong of Bamburgh Castle and Cragside Estates.
Game sourced from our namesake Bamburgh Castle Estates is on the menu.
The Bamburgh Castle Inn has sourced naturally-reared pheasant and partridges from the Bamburgh Castle and Cragside Estate for its winter menu this year.
Diners can enjoy the game in dishes like oven roasted breast of pheasant with rosemary and thyme and in game casseroles with herb dumplings.
Sourcing the game is part of a drive by the Inn to feature tasty and affordable local produce on its menu boards.
Sean Donkin, general manager at the Bamburgh Castle Inn said: “We’re very keen to source and use local produce in our dishes and are delighted to be growing the contacts we have with suppliers.
“Game is a great ingredient. It’s wild, natural and free range. It’s a great alternative to chicken and has a lovely subtle flavour and being very low in fat and cholesterol makes it a healthy option as well.”
Francis Watson Armstrong of Bamburgh Castle and Cragside Estate said: “We are delighted local businesses like the Bamburgh Castle Inn are using game on their menus. Game is a delicious local produce which is enjoying a rise in popularity. I’m certainly looking forward to sampling some of the dishes.”
Getting it fright! Youngsters get inn-to Halloween spirit
October 23 2009
It’s a Halloween hat-trick for pupils at Seahouses Middle School with help from the village’s Bamburgh Castle Inn.
Thanks to a 60-strong pumpkin pile, donated to the school by the inn and G S Clark of Bamburgh, pupils will learn hauntingly-good Halloween recipes and take pumpkin flesh home to recreate spooky savouries for their families.
Head chef at the Bamburgh Castle Inn, David Barilla, will be coming into the school to show youngsters how throwing away tasty pumpkin flesh could mean missing a treat.
David said: “While pumpkins make great Halloween lanterns there’s so much you can do with the scooped-out flesh that usually just ends up in the bin.
“Pumpkin is very good for you as it’s packed full of vitamins but it’s also a great ingredient for lots of recipes like soup, casseroles and of course, pies.”
Youngsters will also be carving out lanterns with the pumpkins to enter into the Bamburgh Castle Inn’s Halloween lantern competition. The competition takes place on Saturday, October 31 and is open to all children from the district or who are holidaying here.
Children wanting to enter the competition can take their lanterns along to the Bamburgh Castle Inn at 6:00pm. The prize for the winning lantern is a family meal for four at the inn.
Above: Treating it; Seahouses Middle School pupils get round ways
to use pumpkins with the Bamburgh Castle Inn’s David Barella.
Seaside inn pulls top award for ale quality
June 17 2009
Licensees at a popular Northumberland inn are celebrating this week after pulling a prestigious award for the quality of their beer.
Sean Donkin, who runs the Bamburgh Castle Inn in Seahouses, has been awarded Cask Marque accreditation for serving the perfect pint of cask conditioned ale.
Sean said: “This award is a great endorsement for us. We are getting a growing number of customers who visit the inn especially for its cask ale. It is rewarding and a testament to the hard work and effort our bar team puts into looking after our ale to know we’re getting the formula just right.”
Backed by 34 of the country’s leading brewers and pub companies, Cask Marque accreditation is only awarded to licensees whose ale passes a series of rigorous independent beer quality audits.
Since its foundation in 1997, Cask Marque has inspected over 100,000 pints of beer and accredited over 5,000 of the country’s 36,500 pubs estimated to serve one or more cask conditioned ales.
Cask Marque director, Paul Nunny, said: “Sean and his team should feel justifiably proud of this excellent achievement, which not only recognises the effort they put into serving the perfect pint but also acts as an independent guarantee of quality for customers.
“All too often, publicans don’t appreciate the care and attention cask beers require and then run the risk of losing custom by serving pints that are below par.”
Fittingly for a pub with panoramic views towards the Farne Islands, The Bamburgh Castle Inn serves Farne Island ale and Black Sheep ale along with a variety of lagers, wines, spirits and soft drinks.
Diners treated to dolphin display
A pod of 12 dolphins, believed to be the Bottlenose species, were watched playing in the waves by guests and staff at the Bamburgh Castle Inn from the hotel’s first floor bar which overlooks the harbour and sea.
Manager Sean Donkin said: “We watched the creatures for over half an hour looping around in the water before they headed slowly southwards. They were coming quite close in to the shoreline. It looked as if they were feeding as they weren’t travelling very fast and spent a while circling in the same spot. It was a very high tide which made them seem even closer to the inn which looks out over the harbour towards the Farne Islands beyond.
“I’ve seen dolphins and porpoises out to sea but never as close in as this. They looked very relaxed and were certainly in no hurry to move on.
“At first we thought they were killer whales because they were so large and dark in colour. You could just see their fins and backs coming out of the water but one of the party boats closer to the pod identified them as Bottlenose dolphins.”
Sean added: “It was an amazing sight and really made the day for our customers who were watching during the lunchtime service. Observing a pod of dolphins from your hotel window or while you’re having lunch isn’t the sort of thing that happens every day. We were lucky to witness them.”
