Market Cross Guest House

About Market Cross Guest House

Market Cross is a small guest house in the middle of Belford, a quiet village a few miles inland from Bamburgh and just off the A1. It has four rooms and is run personally by its owners, which shows in the level of attention. The property holds a five-star rating and has collected a long run of awards, including AA Guest Accommodation of the Year for England and repeated gold awards for B&B of the Year in the North East.

Each of the four rooms is decorated individually, with king-size beds, en-suite bathrooms, White Company toiletries, Nespresso machines and smart televisions. The finish is closer to a small luxury hotel than a traditional village B&B, but the scale stays domestic: this is a house with four rooms, not a hotel, and the atmosphere is quiet and unhurried.

Breakfast is the centrepiece and is cooked to order using Northumbrian produce, with kippers, locally cured bacon and homemade bread and preserves among the regular options. There is a guest lounge, off-street parking and secure storage for bicycles. There is no restaurant for dinner, but Belford has pubs within walking distance and the coastal villages are a short drive.

The location is genuinely well placed for the north of the county: Bamburgh, Seahouses and the Farne Island boats are ten minutes away, Holy Island and the Lindisfarne causeway around twenty, and Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed both within half an hour. It suits couples on a coastal touring holiday and anyone who prefers a small, carefully run place to a large hotel. With only four rooms it books up a long way ahead for summer and half-terms.