The Briar Rose – Your Home from Home
Close to: Beamish, Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, Sunderland, Washington – Tyne and Wear – North East England
Barnard Castle, a tranquil market town in Teesdale is home to the magnificent Bowes Museum and is a great day out for guests of the Briar Rose. The former home of Sir Roderick Murchison is pictured below
Read what the Times correspondent has to say in the link below
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-weekend-in-barnard-castle-co-durham-cccb92k03
The North East has lots of events going on throughout the year. Here is a sample of what visitors can expect during 2019
| 13-14 April 2019 | Bishop Auckland | Bishop Auckland Food Festival |
| 4-6/5/19 | Durham | Locomotion Festival of Steam |
| June – September | Bishop Auckland | Kynren |
| 8-9/6/18 | Seaham | Seaham Food Festival |
| 28/6. 1/7. 3/7 | Chester le Street | Cricket World Cup Matches |
| 5-8/7/19 | Tynemouth | Tynemouth festival |
| 13-21/7/19 | Durham | Brass Band Festival |
| 26-28/7/2019 | Seaburn & Roker | Sunderland Air Show |
| 7-8/9/19 | Wolsingham | Agricultural Show |
| 14-17/9/2019 | Durham | Lumiere |
| 5-13/10/19 | Durham | Book Festival |
| 14-17/11/19 | Durham | Lumiere |
| 28/11 – 1/12/19 | Durham | Durham Xmas Fair |
The majority of families mark Christmas by putting up and decorating a Christmas tree in their homes over the Christmas period. We have done this for our guests over the Christmas period to ensure they feel “home from home”.
Last week the crew from BBC’s Countryfile were filming here in Durham. Presenters Helen Skelton and Steve Brown visited the county to learn more about the region’s traditional rapper dance, fancy pigeons and various other arts and crafts native to the county.
Welcome news for visitors to Durham City as Durham Cathedral begins the mammoth task of unwrapping the Central Tower on 4 December, following the £1.9m restoration work which has been underway since 2015. The long-awaited unwrapping will be welcome news for visitors eagerly waiting to climb the tower for unrivalled views of Durham City and the River Wear from the central vantage point. Weather permitting, the removal of the scaffolding should be completed as early as March 2019. Find out more >
#lovedurham19
Celebrations of Durham19, the county’s year of culture continue as world-famous artwork from the National Gallery’s Collection will visit Bishop Auckland in 2019. Nicolas Poussin’s, The Triumph of Pan, from the National Gallery’s Collection, will be on display at Auckland Castle as part of a UK tour from 5 October 2019 – 5 January 2020
The three venues for the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour 2019 are Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; York Art Gallery; and Auckland Castle, part of The Auckland Project, County Durham.
The Triumph of Pan,
The final venue in the 2019 Masterpiece Tour is Auckland Castle, one of the most important and best-preserved medieval bishops’ palaces in Europe. The Castle, once home to the Prince Bishops of Durham, is now the centrepiece of The Auckland Project, a new visitor destination centred around arts, heritage and faith. Set to reopen in 2019, Auckland Castle is currently undergoing conservation to be returned to its original splendour, with highlights including a succession of Georgian Gothic State Rooms containing delicate plasterwork, originally created in the 1700s by the renowned English architect James Wyatt. Amongst the finest surviving examples of Wyatt’s Georgian Gothic in the country, they form a state processional route from the Castle entrance to the great Throne Room, where audiences with the Bishop were once held. As well as telling the story of the Prince Bishops of Durham, Auckland Castle also boasts a temporary exhibition programme and is home to Jacob and his Twelve Sons, an impressive cycle of paintings by the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán.
Lumiere, the UK’s biggest light festival, returns 14 – 17 November 2019. The event will bring back a number of the most popular artworks and installations from the previous five festivals. The event marks the 10th anniversary since Lumiere was established in Durham 2009. In 2017, more than 240,000 visitors witnessed the stunning light installations over four spectacular evenings in Durham City.
The even has been marked with the unveiling of a new permanent light installation. ‘Heron’, created by artist Jon Voss, is located on Durham City’s riverbanks and pays homage to the British bird often found around the River Wear. Remind your guests to save the date
Natural England and the National Trust join forces to open Cafe in the Dene, which will help protect one of the county’s finest landscapes. Customers at the new café will be helping to support one of Durham’s national nature reserves and heritage coastline. Natural England and the National Trust are joining forces to run the Café in the Dene, which opened for business last Saturday in Peterlee. Read more >
Ting Dalton, editor of My Travel Monkey has arrived in Durham to conduct the first of three influencer visits as part of the This is wild, This is Durham campaign. Staying at Beamish Hall Hotel, Ting is reviewing the wild outdoor and family activities we have to offer, including a visit to Beamish Museum, Raby Castle, Hamsterley Forest and Durham Heritage Coast. Ting will also be enjoying activities during the North Pennines Stargazing Festival. Follow the hashtag #familydurham to see what she gets up to! Follow Ting on Instagram >
The Briar Rose was chosen as the place to stay in the Vale of Durham. Our excellent reviews from our guests can be viewed on Trip Advisor. Those on our website are taken from our visitor book.
