The team at Dunkery Beacon Country House Hotel are celebrating this month (June, 2017) after being shortlisted for the South West region in the eviivo Hidden Gem Awards.
If the award-winning hotel in Wootton Courtenay near Dunster is selected as the regional winner it will go forward to the national awards night taking place in October in London.
John Bradley, co-owner of the country house hotel with his wife Jane, explained: “The whole team here at Dunkery Beacon Country House Hotel is extremely proud of our shortlisting for the South West Hidden Gem Award.
“It’s a wonderful achievement to have been recognised in these prestigious awards and we’redelighted. We work so hard to give our guests a comfortable and memorable experience, so to be selected for this award is particularly special.
“Now we’ve got all our fingers and toes crossed that we’ll go forward to represent the region in London in October at the national awards night. During the event, eviivo will crown a ‘Star Amongst Stars’, picked from all the regional Hidden Gem winners.”
eviivo provides booking management software for more than 6,350 properties ranging from stately castles and hotels to Shepherd’s huts and beachfront B&Bs. The awards were open for nominations for both eviivo and non-eviivo customers.
John and Jane have notched up more than 40 years’ experience in the catering and hospitality industries between them and are hands-on proprietors, meeting and greeting all guests, personally overseeing all housekeeping and cooking and serving in the restaurant, and attending to all their guests’ requirements from special dietary needs to advice on nearby walks.
An a la carte evening menu is available four evenings a week during the summer season in the hotel’s Coleridge Restaurant. A fine wine is list supplied by the London-based prestigious wine and spirit merchants Berry Bros. & Rudd, who are by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Jane, who has a hospitality background and worked in the wine trade for 15 years, says: “There are fewer areas in Britain where you can enjoy a mash up of wild moorland with lush, deep, river-made, wooded valleys, dotted with pretty thatched cottages, and acres of woodland with bluebells in the spring.
“It also has a stunning coastline of great cliffs, the highest in England, and beaches and bays reaching out to the Bristol Channel.
“You can cuddle up with a good book in front of our guest lounge log burning stove in the cooler months, sleep in a four-poster bed, dine by candlelight, star gaze, walk hand-in-hand on a sandy beach, take a trip on a steam train and even take a trip to the lunar landscape of the Valley of Rocks nearby. We think the area around us and what we offer make us ideal nominees for these awards.”
To find out more about Dunkery Beacon Country House, please call 01643 841 241 or visit www.dunkerybeaconaccommodation.co.uk.