Award-winning Wark hotel and restaurant Battlesteads is getting ready to welcome beer lovers from across the North East, for the 9th annual Battlesteads Beer Festival.

The four-day celebration will take place from Thursday 25^th to Sunday 28^th July, combining live entertainment and great food with the very best of both British and international beers, lagers and ales.

As well as over 20 varieties of beers on offer, the popular gin bar and Prosecco tent will also be returning, offering refreshing summer tipples as an alternative to the ales.

Entertainment this year will include live music performances from some of the region’s best-loved bands, including Big Red and the Grinners, Mudskipper, Jason Arnup and Alive and Kicking.

Katie Meyrick-Scott, general manager of Battlesteads, said: "The beer festival is without a doubt one of the highlights of the year for us and we love welcoming guests from across Northumberland and further afield for a fantastic weekend of entertainment. The atmosphere is always brilliant with hundreds of visitors over the four days, and of course we will once again be raising money for the Great North Air Ambulance which is an extremely worthy cause."

Admission to the beer festival is free on Thursday (6pm-11pm) and Sunday (12pm until the beer runs out). On Friday (6pm – 11pm) and Saturday (12pm – 11pm) tickets are £4, with all proceeds going to the Great North Air Ambulance. A free transport service from Hexham is also available on Friday and Saturday.

Eco-friendly Northumberland hotel and restaurant Batlesteads is offering an evening of Burns Night celebrations in the most traditional Scottish style.

On Saturday 26 January, the Wark hotel will host a traditional four-course dinner, with an original 19th century menu by Scottish chef Meg Dodds that was prepared for the first ever Edinburgh Burns Club meeting in the early 1800s.

Known as 'the Scottish Mrs Beeton', Meg Dodds was the 19th century version of a celebrity chef, acclaimed for her Cooks and Housewives Manual of 1826.

Dinner will begin with King James' recipe for 'het kail cock-a-leekie soup', followed by the Scottish staple of rarebit haggis, served with 'neep purry' – a puree of swede, carrot and ginger.

The main course will be a het joint striploin with whole caramelised roast onion and rumbledethumps, a traditional side dish of crushed potatoes with onion, cabbage and leeks. For dessert, guests will enjoy 'ither – orra eattocks cranachan', a classic Scottish dish of raspberries with toasted oatmeal, honey and whisky cream.  

Traditional entertainment for the evening will come courtesy of Burns Night toasts and speeches, and a Northumbrian piper.

The Wark/Hexham area of Northumberland is closely associated with Burns Night – it was part of Scotland up until 1296, and Robbie Burns himself visited Hexham on his tour of the Borders in May 1787.

Battlesteads' Burns Night Dinner costs £30 per person, and starts at 7pm.

Battlesteads Hotel & Restaurant is gearing up for the festive season with the return of its popular Christmas Wreath Workshops.

Taking place on Friday 30 November and Saturday 8 December at the hotel in Wark, starting at 9.30am, the workshops will include welcome morning refreshments, mulled wine and a three-course lunch, as well as the two-hour workshop.

During the workshop, you’ll be provided with aprons to protect your clothes, bags of holly, boxes of decorations and bundles of the best quality wire-edged fabric ribbon – along with step-by-step tuition from Northumbrian Wreaths and Flowers to help you create a stunning wreath for your house.

At 12pm, mulled wine will be served as the workshop ends, followed by a delicious three-course lunch featuring the very best local produce, including vegetables, herbs and salads grown in Battlesteads' very own kitchen gardens.

There will be wine to accompany the meal and tea and coffee to finish, before guests head home to hang their new home-made wreaths in time for Christmas.

Tickets for the wreath-making workshops can be purchased in advance online and cost £60 per person, including all wreath-making materials and protective clothing, and all food and drink. £30 is payable on booking as a deposit, and the remaining £30 is due on the day.

Spaces on these workshops are limited – so book now at here, email info@battlesteads.com or call 01434 230 039.

It's not just beer lovers who are eagerly awaiting the return of the Battlesteads Beer Festival – this year there’s something for everyone with an extensive selection of ciders and gins also joining the line-up.

Hosted by Battlesteads Hotel & Restaurant and now in its eighth year, the Battlesteads Beer Festival is a three-day celebration of the finest brews from Northumberland, the UK and across the world.

Running from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 July, the event is set to attract hundreds of visitors to the pub in Wark, Northumberland.

This year will see the return of the popular Battlesteads Gin Bar, where guests can enjoy a refreshing summer tipple. This year's selection of gins will include Boe Violet, Gin Ting, Hepple, Hadrian’s Wall Gin, Cuckoo Sunshine, Peaky Blinder Spiced and Empress 1908.

On the main bar, ciders including Moonshine, Blueberry, Rhubarb and Devon Cyder will be on offer, along with 24 different beers from locally brewed golden ales and black porters to Belgian IPAs and German pilsners.

There will be live entertainment every day, with local bands including The Mudskippers, The Culprits, Jason Arnup, and Marty Craggs and Trevor Sewell.

General manager of Battlesteads Katie Meyrick-Scott said: "The Battlesteads Beer Festival is without a doubt the highlight of our year and has become a firm favourite with both locals and guests visiting from further afield. We love holding an event like this that brings all the local community together, and once again all of the proceeds will be donated to the Great North Air Ambulance – a worthy charity we are proud to support."

Admission to the beer festival is free on Thursday (6pm-11pm) and Sunday (12pm until the beer runs out). On Friday and Saturday tickets are £4 (12pm – 11pm). A free transport service from Hexham is also available on Friday and Saturday.

Beer-lovers of the North East rejoice – the Battlesteads Beer Festival is returning for its 8th year, with its most well-stocked bar to date.

The annual four-day festival hosted by Battlesteads Hotel & Restaurant is a celebration of the best drinks the North East has to offer, from ales, lagers and stouts to gins and ciders.

Running from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 July, the event is set to attract hundreds of visitors to the pub in Wark, Northumberland, to sample beers from across the region, as well as around the world.

This year will also see the return of the popular Battlesteads Gin Bar, where guests can enjoy a refreshing summer tipple as an alternative to the beer.

There will be live entertainment every day, with local bands including The Mudskippers, The Culprits, Jason Arrup, and Marty Craggs and Trevor Sewell.

General manager of Battlesteads Katie Meyrick-Scott said: "The Battlesteads Beer Festival is without a doubt the highlight of our year and has become a firm favourite with both locals and guests visiting from further afield. We love holding an event like this that brings all the local community together, and once again all of the proceeds will be donated to the Great North Air Ambulance – a worthy charity we are proud to support."

Admission to the beer festival is free on Thursday (6pm-11pm) and Sunday (12pm until the beer runs out). On Friday and Saturday tickets are £4 (12pm – 11pm). A free transport service from Hexham is also available on Friday and Saturday.

More than 250 people attended the 2017 Battlesteads Beer Festival, making it the biggest and busiest festival to date.

Award-winning hotel and restaurant Battlesteads, in Wark, has hosted the four-day festival for the past seven years, continuing to grow every year with new features such as a Prosecco Bar, new for 2017, and the popular Gin Bar introduced in 2016.

Beer lovers were treated to more than 20 different beers, ciders and foreign lagers, from breweries around the world. Taking place from Thursday 20 – Sunday 23 July, the festival reached its peak on Saturday with local band Alive and Kicking providing live music that had the whole garden jumping.

Katie Meyrick-Scott, general manager of Battlesteads, said: "Our 2017 festival was a fantastic celebration of beers from around the world, bringing together the local community for four days of entertainment. It was our busiest festival yet – so much so that the beer had run out by Sunday! We're already looking forward to next year's event, and hope everyone who came this year had a great time and will return in 2018."

All proceeds from ticket sales to the Battlesteads Beer Festival go to the Great North Air Ambulance. The total donation to the Air Ambulance this year will be approximately £1,200.