Home News           April 2008        

The first day of April treated us to sunshine and the first real warmth of the year, however, this is April and so the snow showers forecast for the week-end could well materialise!

The daffodils are well on their way to flowering and lambing started 10 days ago on Easter Sunday and things have started getting busier and busier since then.  Whilst new arrivals have been appearing in the lambing shed, we have also had one or two visitors further up the farm as my neighbour's horned hill sheep have been testing out our boundary fence and found it wanting. We hope that we have managed to patch it up sufficiently, but time will tell!

We had a representative from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development visiting the farm last Friday to inspect the hedges we have been planting. I think that he was sufficiently pleased with what he saw and he approved some additional hedge planting that we want to progress which is good news.

We have finally managed to install free wireless broadband into the cottages and we expect to start work on our timber activity trail in mid-May. In the meantime, as a slightly less energetic form of exercise, we have increased the number of board games available to our guests to include: Monopoly; Scrabble, Jenga and Connect 4 to name but a few.

Good news! The latest attraction in Belfast (60 mins' drive away) - a giant Ferris wheel giving fantastic views over Belfast that was mentioned in the December newsletter is aiming to stay in place until December 2008. If approved this will allow many more people to enjoy this latest addition to the Belfast skyline.

Although we are no longer offering B&B, we have availability bookings for the self catering cottages for 2008 - please refer to the 'Availability' section of the website for more information). Those guests staying in Faughan Cottage and Foyle Cottage can enjoy relaxing in front of the open fires, while those guests choosing Roe Loft can appreciate the fine views over the garden and surrounding hills.

There is lots to see and do in the local area and whatever the weather we are sure that you will have an enjoyable trip to the Sperrins and Drumcovitt. A great website resource for walking in N Ireland has recently been launched (Walk NI) which is worth checking out for all levels of walking. There's a horsey version too (NI Horseriding)! More information on a how to get involved in a wide range of outdoor activities can also be found here.

We are graded 4 Diamond  Guest Accommodation by the RAC [Royal Automobile Club, a motoring organisation founded in the days when cars were not so reliable and there were few service stations]  and also awarded their Sparkling Diamond.

We were pleased to be included in an article in the Observer Sunday paper (Escape travel supplement) in 2005:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/travel/story/0,,1411766,00.html

We are also listed here in Alistair Sawday's Special Places to Stay guide.

We were also pleased to find  Drumcovitt had been nominated by some of our guests for entry into "The Good Hotel Guide 2007" and that "Georgina Campbell's Best of the Best Guide 2006" also included Drumcovitt.

Thank you for your kind words and recommendations to these two worthy guides- they do not charge for entries -places are included on merit. We are so delighted and just hope we can maintain the standards.