The Bushmills Inn

The Bushmills Inn Review

Owner Alan Dunlop oversees this cozy old coach inn, where you'll be welcomed by stripped pine, peat fires, and gaslights warming the public rooms, a warren of corridors with a timbered wood burner in the sitting room, a turret with a false bookcase, and, with its soft illumination and intimate snugs, the Gas Bar—the ideal place to appreciate the music of the seven-piece Scad the Beggars complete with harp, hammered dulcimer, and songsters. The Inn was revamped in 2009, adding an extra nine bedrooms with four-poster beds. The livery stables house the informal restaurant, which serves fresh and hearty food, and the bar. Meals are satisfyingly filling with the dinner menu offering prime sirloin steak, Donegal salmon, and stuffed pork. You can also sample the 25-year-old Bushmills malt whiskey from the hotel's own private cask. The staff can provide a baby-listening service—you leave the tot in the room with a baby monitor, and they alert you to cries. The distillery is a stroll away from the main square and the inn, as is the salmon-filled River Bush.