Hastings Hotels and Jawbox provide new outdoor bar experience

As bars look to new ways to satisfy their clientele while keeping them safe, the Culloden Hotel in Holywood, county Down has found an imaginative outdoor solution.

The luxury five-star hotel has teamed up with Belfast gin producers, Jawbox to provide an outdoor bar experience featuring an impressive converted shipping container set in the stunning hotel gardens.

The bar, used at numerous events in London, hasn’t yet had its debut in Northern Ireland, the home of Jawbox. Given the current situation, the team at Jawbox Gin reached out to Hastings Hotels with the offer to use it, giving locals and guests a unique social setting as lockdown begins to ease.

Hastings Hotels, which has been voted Ireland's best luxury hotel group for the past two years, will locate the outdoor bar next to the five-star Culloden Hotel’s bistro in the hotel’s gardens, the Cultra Inn.

As well as serving the award-winning Jawbox gin, the bar will offer beer and wine with food in the Cultra Inn.

“We were bowled over by this very kind gesture from the team in Jawbox which really will help to maximise the beautiful surroundings at the Culloden’s Cultra Inn,” said Howard Hastings, managing director of Hastings Hotels.

It will also allow us to enhance the enjoyment and safety of visitors to the Culloden at a time of restrictions and social distancing.

“The word has been spreading fast and we’ve already booked a number of small parties for July.”

The Hastings Hotels collection consists of seven hotels, with four in Belfast, including the five-star Culloden Estate and Spa, the world-famous Europa Hotel, the four-star Stormont Hotel and Northern Ireland's tallest hotel The Grand Central Hotel.

The stunning Slieve Donard in Down underneath the Mourne Mountains, Ballygally Castle on the Antrim Coast and the Everglades in Derry complete the Hastings portfolio.

Sam Denning, (L) Restaurant and Bar Manager of Culloden Estate & Spa, Lisa Steele, General Manager of Culloden Estate & Spa, and Scott Weatherup, General Manager of Cultra Inn celebrate as the five-star Culloden hotel in Belfast teams up with local gin producers, Jawbox, to provide an outdoor bar experience featuring an impressive converted shipping container set in the stunning hotel gardens.