If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP140.83), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Along Northumberland’s wild castle-crowded shoreline, there’s no coastal jaunt worth its (sea) salt that doesn’t end somewhere charmingly cosy. Round here – specifically bijou village Beadnell – Grade II-listed, 300-year-old hideaway Beadnell Towers & Kitchen finely fits the bill. It wears its history on its heart, with antique stone and wood beams in heritage rooms, but patterned wallpapers and painted panelling keep it current. It’s the kind of place where staff will hand you wellies on your way out for walks, you can curl up with a canine in the fire-warmed lounge, and the restaurant keeps up Northumberland’s good name for produce of divine provenance.
22 (set in the main inn and the Coach House), including one suite (Muckle Hoose).
Check–Out
10.30am; check-in, 3pm. Times are flexible by up to two hours for a £30 fee, on request and subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £169.00, including tax at 20 per cent.
More details
Rates include a Continental buffet and the as-hearty-as-its-name-implies ‘full Northumbrian’ (there’s a veggie version too), and some homemade chocolate and shortbread in rooms on arrival.
Also
Pairock is the hotel’s accessible option, with a roll-in wet room.
At the hotel
Terrace, Reading Room lounge, wellies and umbrellas to borrow, and free WiFi. In rooms: smart TV with streaming capabilities, desk, tea- and coffee-making kit, one free bottle of water on arrival, and Noble Isle bath products.
Our favourite rooms
With calming coastal-inspired decor (blue and sandy hues, handpainted shells by local artist Matt Robson, hessian and jute accents) in all rooms, these are spaces of still waters no matter how temperamental the North Sea is at the time. But, it’s the heritage rooms, with their exposed antique stone and wood ceiling beams that win our hearts, especially Muckle House for its twin copper bath tubs in the bedroom, or Shiel with its private terrace. Ducket is best for sea views, and rooms in the converted Coach House offer a touch more privacy.
Spa
There’s no spa on-site, but guests get free access to Ocean Club, a 10-minute drive north by Seahouses Harbour. Here, there’s a full-size pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, and gym. And for an extra charge, treatments include Thalgo rituals, wave-inspired massages, algae wraps, and serious skin brightening (microdermabrasion, dermaplaning…).
Packing tips
Beadnell takes some bulk out of packing with wellies and brollies to borrow. But do include any bluster-proof North Face or Barbour outerwear and a wet suit if you see windsurfing in your stay’s future.
Also
On request, staff can play Cupid and arrange flowers, chocolate, champagne, or maybe a petal-strewn bath if there’s a tub in your room.
Pet‐friendly
All ground-floor rooms – in the main inn and the Coach House – are pet-friendly. Four-legged guests get treats and doggie bags on arrival; beds and bowls are available on request; and they’re welcome in the bar and Reading Room. See more pet-friendly hotels in Northumberland.
Children
While Beadnell is cosiest for couples, Coach House Four has bunk-beds, some rooms have a sofa-bed for a charge, and some interconnect. And windy beaches, castles to be kings of, and the national park provide plenty of entertainment.
Sustainability efforts
The hotel runs on biomass energy, has significantly reduced plastic use, has timed sensor lighting and champions local produce. The renovation preserved the inn’s original features, too.
Pick the best vantage point of the open kitchen for cheffing and a show. And, come summer, the hotel terrace has picnic benches aplenty.
Dress Code
You might not want to wear wellies in the dining room (or at least dust them off), but otherwise there are no sartorial expectations.
Hotel restaurant
The hotel is deliciously sandwiched between the fertile farmland of the Northumberland National Park and the bountiful-with-seafood coast. So – with local delicacies in abundance – dining is kind of Beadnell’s thing. In the restaurant’s handsome dining room (parquet flooring, long banquettes, copper pans sparkling against Hague Blue walls), twice-baked soufflé of Cuddy’s Cave cheese (from Doddington’s Dairy a half-hour drive away); gin-and-tonic-cured salmon from a local smokery; haddock battered with Alnwick Ale; and cod and cockle risotto act as conduits for a true taste of the region. The menu has further-flung Asiatic flavours, too; but who could resist the meaty promise of a ‘Northumberland pork plate’? Plus, there’s a small-plates menu for lunch (ahoy there, Admiral Collingwood cheese beignets…).
Hotel bar
You can either take your cocktail of the month (or a double measure of house gin with tonic) in the peaceful Reading Room, with its parquet flooring, piles of books, painterly wallpaper and fireplace (lit on cooler days), plus games to play (cards, dominoes…). Or hop onto one of the Hotspur Bar’s canary-yellow stools to converse with the barkeeps, or pile into a booth – set around the corner from the dining room, it’s ideal for a digestif. Or, drink outside in the more clement months. Happy hour – with two-for-one cocktails – runs from 3pm to 4pm, Monday to Saturday.
Last orders
Breakfast is from 8am till 11am, lunch from noon till 3pm, afternoon tea from noon till 5pm, and dinner from 5pm till 9pm. Drinks technically run till midnight, but guests get some wiggle room.
Room service
In-room dining isn't a standard service, but it's possible on request.
Beadnell Towers & Kitchen might be near the bijou village of Beadnell; but it’s also surrounded by some of Northumberland’s most sensational scenery, from castle-studded coastline to rolling parkland.
Planes
Newcastle International (which has direct routes across Europe) is an hour’s drive away, or Edinburgh (a two-hour drive away) has more international connections.
Trains
Chathill Station is a 10-minute drive away. From here you can connect to Newcastle in an hour, where London-bound trains change.
Automobiles
Each room has a free designated spot in the hotel’s car park – and with Northumberland’s wilderness all around you, some wheels will come in handy.
Worth getting out of bed for
They may have hailed from further south, but there’s blustery Brontë-esque romance aplenty in Beadnell village’s untamed marram-grass-edged coastline, undulating dunes and horseshoe-shaped bay. When windy it’s a hotspot for watersports, but the golden sands make ideal sandcastle fodder when sunny too, while beach-combers might find bits of sea glass and antique pottery, and rock-pool investigators might unearth little critters. Due to the area’s rich and rife history of contested borders and leadership power plays between the Anglians, Celtics and Normans, Northumberland has the most castles of any English county, with a swathe along the coast. Hop from Mitford to Warkworth, to Alnwick (where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed), to Dunstanburgh, to Bamburgh, to Lindisfarne, out on Holy Island (with a twitching pit stop at Lindisfarne Nature Reserve). And, at various points between March and October, dolphins, puffins and seals frolic on and around the Farne Islands – boat trips leave frequently from Seahouses Harbour, and Beadnell guests get a discount (ask staff for a voucher).
Further inland, Northumberland National Park has squirrels, snakes, deer, owls and more; plus hikes to Hareshaw Linn waterfall and through Harwood Forest. And, visit its Dark Sky Park at night for undisturbed sightings of the Andromeda Galaxy and other constellations.
Local restaurants
Beadnell Kitchen is the biggest news around here when it comes to scoping out the dining scene. However, a brisk hour’s walk north along the coast to Seahouses Harbour can be rewarded with a suitably seafood-forward meal at Beach House Hotel: Bloody Mary-splashed whitebait, Sriracha-spattered Shetland mussels, ’nduja-slicked North Sea cod. Trek even further along, past Bell’s Point to Lowgos Bay, and you can pitch up at the Black Swan, whose menu starts promisingly with a page on provenance and continues apace, with grilled lobster caught 200 yards away, local lamb atop truffled potatoes crushed with parmesan, warming smoked-haddock chowder and more.
Local bars
The Craster Arms along the road has Northumberland brews on tap and 12 kinds of Whitley Neill gin, alongside locally distilled vodka and rum, so it’s just as well that its fireside wingbacks are cosy as can be too.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this Grade II-listed inn between Northumberland’s coast and National Park and unpacked their beach-combing bounty, a full account of their coastal castle-hopping break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Beadnell Towers & Kitchen…
Cosy Northumbrian crashpad with top culinary skills Beadnell Towers & Kitchen had a big birthday last year, hitting the big ‘three-oh-oh’. And, while a Grade II listing, and the exposed antique stone walls and wood beams criss-crossing soaring ceilings in heritage rooms give away her age, she wears it well. But, she’s not mired in the past – Dynargh Design creative Matt Hulme has looked to the tempestuous sea, shifting dunes and marram-grass-edged bays for inspiration when adding coastal-leaning interiors, with light fittings that echo ship rigging, shells painted by a local artist on display and framed beach-combing finds. Romance comes in the form of freestanding bath tubs in some rooms, sea views from the upper floor, patterned wallpapers, and herringbone parquet. Also nauticalia and nice (well, very nice) is the dining, which has fresh-from-the-fishermen seafood and picks from local farms and dairies, very welcome after a ramble, puffin-spotting boat trip, or windsurfing session, especially when washed down with lashings of house gin or local brews.
