Here at the castle we are busy getting ready for re-opening after lockdown. We’re unsure quite how that’s going to look or exactly when it’s going to be. It all feels reminiscent of the very first time we flung open the doors of the castle to guests twenty-two years ago this weekend.
What we can tell you is that we are determined to try to maintain the special feeling of a stay at Augill – something that has been called several times the Augill Magic.
Over the past year or so we had already introduced a number of major changes to adapt to the times and respond to shifting guest expectations.
In October we opened a brand new restaurant – JustinWoods@Augill under the leadership of, you’ve guessed it, renowned local chef Justin Woods. To make way for this we swapped the Music Room with the Dining Room. The results are stunning.
There’s no more communal dining which, while mourned by some has not been missed by most as the dining room is as convivial as ever and the quality of our food is now second to none.
To cope with the aftermath of the pandemic we have had to make some further changes and one of those will be the loss of our little cinema to make way for a new bar. This will give us additional space in the conservatory which will be essential for social distanced dining.
We have moved the projector and movie screen to the Drawing Room so movie nights are still possible, but may have to be slightly less spontaneous.
We are looking at how we can make better use of our outdoor space when we re-open – no doubt emboldened by the magnificent spring we’ve been able to share with nobody – and plans include extended options for outside dining as well as a garden bar and barbecue. We’re looking at the feasibility of an outdoor cinema set-up too!
There’ll be lots more to think about over the coming weeks but what we really need to make re-opening a success is you! If you can visit us, please do.
If you haven’t already, please sign up to our mailing list to get all our regular updates or follow us on Facebook where we’ve been keeping followers in the loop on whats been going at the castle during lockdown.
We look forward to connecting with as many people as possible as soon as possible – social distancing permitting, of course!
