The Maghera inn

I don't know if any of you know about this little jewel in the crown of Ulster. It nestles at the foot of the Mourn Mountains and is in the town of Castlewellen.

I was invited along to help celebrate the 90th Birthday of Bob the father of Linda. We had a wonderful evening with as they say in those parts loads of "Gud Craic"

I found the atmosphere on arrival everything one would expect of a small Irish pub, warm, welcoming and cosy! (in German one calls this gemütlich) It is an old wayside inn with an annex that has been stylishly added and in keeping with the rest of the pub ambiance.

They had sited us in the annex alongside of the window, on a long table with plenty of space (no one was cramped and wing space was ample I do hate it when you are crammed into a space that was meant for a 6 stone soaking wetter (I am ample in size).

I enjoy my food and travel a lot, spending much of my well earned food allowance in restaurants and bistros, some very much up market 4 star , some, just nice friendly pubs with more or less bistro style food.

We got ourselves seated and almost at once a drink /wine list appeared. We are all wine drinkers, some white and some red, we ordered a very nice Australian Sherah and a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. Without asking 2 pitchers of iced water appeared on to the table, a very rare event in most restaurants that I visit in the UK.

The dinner menu was produced and also the daily blackboard “specials”. It is a very nice small none fiddly selection. With I believe had something for everyone (I think that a large menu in a small venue like this shows pre-cooking, freezing and re-heating).

I selected confit of duck leg on stir fried veg and parsnip puree for my starter

Linda had the seared scallops, black pudding, squash puree and pancetta crisp.

Across from us one of the other diners (Linda's Brother in Law, Roy) had chosen the soup of the day and the rest chose medley of other treats from the starter menu.

My duck was wonderfully soft, I believe that a sign of a good confit is if the bones are completely clean, no attached meat or skin left after the meal, the stir fry and parsnip puree went very well with the confit. All was perfectly seasoned and presented. I would question the bit of art decor parsnip trail, a portion set to one side would have looked better

My Partners scallop starter got her seal of approval, I know this by the quantity of oo’s and ah’s she was giving (a far better criteria than any Michelin star)

For the mains I chose seared sea bass with lemon herb butter on a bed of wilted Swiss chard with bacon and Dauphinois potatoes.

The bass was just perfect, still translucent, with a crispy skin, the two fillets made a perfect portion. The shredded sautéed Swiss chard and bacon was wonderful, the Dauphinois was creamy, soft and flavoursome. My only observation would be the quenelle of lemon/herb butter was far too large, instead of being the size of a turkeys egg, a pigeons would have sufficed. (If you look carefully you will see that I had nicked a few of Bob's chips that went with his steak).



Linda had local venison steak, with I believe a red damson sauce, scalloped potatoes and seasonal vegetable, the steak was cooked to her taste and she said it was perfect medium rare. (I am a still moving and just knock it’s antlers off, so it looked a little to medium for my taste)

Across from us had the free range duck breast, the waitress on taking the orders had pointed out that the chef cooked it pink unless otherwise instructed, the diner said he liked his well done (Well no accounting for taste). It came and I asked him how it was and he said perfect, this to me shows a chef that is interested in his diners not his ego.


I am diabetic so missed out the pud, but there was a large selection of them on offer and all that precipitated certainly licked their lips afterwards.

The pub had been asked if it would be ok to bring our own cake, they had no problem with this and even brought it out with great ceremony, to the strains of happy birthday from the three piece,

Bob had been a Matelot during the 2nd World War serving on North Atlantic convoys, a photograph had been superimposed onto the top of the cake and it was such a fitting end to a fine meal.

Bob cutting the cake (I'm sure he would have preferred splicing the main brace)

The evening was rounded off with a spot of live music, a 3 piece folk band playing all the good old sing-a-longs, they even got quite a few up dancing; ahem I don’t do dancing so I participated in the watching



Of our party of nine everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable evening with wonderful food, no one faulted the food and said we shall return. I think that when next I am across (Christmas) I would like to try the Sunday Lunch, this looks very interesting indeed.


The wonderful "Olde Worlde" bar




For me the food was at the top of the range for pub/restaurant food, it doesn’t pretend to be top end starred dining. It is what it is and makes no pretensions.



Thanks for a wonderful evening, I shall return.