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Under the Nut Tree: Dinner with added fire
Some places feed you. Under the Nut Tree fires you up for an entire evening.
Hidden at the end of a long lane on the Kentchurch Estate, the supper club sits beneath a magnificent old hazel tree. At its centre is another tree entirely: an enormous hand-forged grill built for cooking over live fire.
You watch dinner take shape, smell it long before it reaches the table and become deeply invested in whatever glorious thing is hanging above the flames. Simon tends the fire while younger members of the team turn, carry and occasionally parade the evening’s feast around the tables, as though reminding everyone what they have to look forward to.
I feel happy and buzzy from the moment I arrive. There is ping-pong, children weaving between the tables and that easy, drawn-out pace I remember from family holidays in France, when dinner began in daylight and somehow became the whole evening. I have now told almost every friend I possess that we must come and feast here together.
Everyone arrives with bottles and cool boxes because it’s BYO, and that small freedom sets the tone. Wine is poured generously, strangers lean across the fire to join a conversation, and friends slip into the kind of evening that will later be remembered in fragments: smoke clinging to their clothes, laughter carrying into the dark, another glass passed around. Huge dahlias, cut that day from the garden, stand over it all, glorious for a few hours before the night folds in.
The menu changes every week. Ours began with san choy bao, which I hadn’t Googled, so in my ignorance I was expecting bao buns. When lettuce leaves arrived ready to be filled, I was wary. I briefly suspected a ruse to make me eat something unfathomably healthy.
I was so delightfully surprised that I tried to recreate them at home the following night. Delicious, messy and dangerously moreish.
Then came the star of the show: fire-roasted woodland pork with char siu sauce, smoky fried rice, seasonal vegetables and ginger and yuzu slaw with cashews. The pork was sticky, smoky and rich, carrying the flavour of the fire we had watched all evening. The slaw brought sharpness and crunch, cutting through just enough to send you back for another helping. The cashews were my favourite, and I snaffled as many as I could from the sharing plate before anyone else noticed.
Dessert was lemon meringue pie with ice cream. Both times I have visited, pudding has been a fresh-cream-filled take on a familiar classic. Soft, excessive and deeply satisfying, it is the sort of thing you tell yourself you cannot possibly finish, then quietly do.
By then, the sun had dropped, the air had cooled and people were edging closer to the fire. Heaters glow overhead, and walls can be lowered around the dining area when the Herefordshire evening gets ideas above its station. Nobody is hurried along. The last glasses are poured, the flames settle and the lane home can wait a little longer.
The journey here is firmly earned.
Bring wine. Bring another layer. Arrive hungry.
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BorderLands at Hay Castle
Some exhibitions give you one way in. BorderLands gives you three: the castle, the story behind the work, and the landscape beyond the walls.
Running at Hay Castle until 31 August, BorderLands explores borders, belonging and identity through a contemporary art exhibition, Curator’s Tours and a Walking Series across the surrounding borderlands. It is rooted in exactly the kind of place Marches & More exists to celebrate: layered, crossed, argued over, loved, and full of lines that are rarely as simple as they look on a map.
Inside the castle, 22 artists from across the UK, Europe and beyond explore the political, cultural and personal dimensions of borders. The main commission is a laid hedge in the Great Hall, created by artist Maya Rose Edwards with master hedge-layer Trefor Prothero from Brecon. It uses a particular Herefordshire and Welsh border style, passed down father-to-son for three generations. Probably the first and only time a hedge has been installed inside a castle, which feels like the Marches behaving exactly as it should.
The hedge sits alongside film from two Beating the Bounds ceremonies, part of Maya’s wider work with communities across Hay, Kington and Presteigne. That project included mapping the border and sketching landmarks personal to participants, so this is not “border” as an abstract art-world word. It is hedges, footpaths, memories, old routes, shared places and the things people notice when they walk the land together.
There are bigger, more striking moments too. Hilary Jack’s No Borders neon hangs on a wall of the ruined Matilda Tower. Larry Achiampong’s Siblinghood flies from the castle’s highest tower, in what may be the first flag flown there for centuries. Hay Castle has said it may keep flying other flags in future, which is a lovely thing to come out of an exhibition: not just a visit, but a new habit for an old building.
The Curator’s Tour on Thursday 20 August is led by Anne De Charmant, Artist Director and Curator for Meadow Arts. This is the one to book if you want someone to help you slow down, look closely and understand the ideas, processes and local conversations behind the work. Very useful if you are new to contemporary art, or if you have ever walked around an exhibition nodding thoughtfully while secretly thinking, “I need an adult.”
The Walking Series takes BorderLands out into the landscape itself. The Hay walks on Thursday 20 August and Sunday 30 August depart from Hay Castle at 10am and return at 12pm, so on 20 August you can do the walk in the morning and the Curator’s Tour from 12.30pm to 2pm. A tidy little borderlands double bill.
Go for the art. Take the tour if you want the deeper story. Join a walk if you want to feel the whole thing under your feet. BorderLands is thoughtful, local and rooted in the exact kind of place Marches & More exists to celebrate.
Details
Where: Hay Castle, Oxford Road, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5DG
Exhibition runs: 15 May to 31 August 2026
Curator’s Tour: Thursday 20 August, 12.30pm to 2pm
Walking Series: Thursday 20 August and Sunday 30 August, 10am to 12pm
Walking tickets: £7.50, under 18s free, booking essential
Exhibition entry: Adults £7.50, Art Fund members £3.75, 18 and under free
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Float first, festival later
There are sensible ways to spend a Saturday on the River Wye. Wye Float has chosen a two-mile journey on a giant inflatable, followed by a full day of live music, food and drinks at Hereford Rugby Club.
The annual river and music festival returns on Saturday 8 August, inviting groups to bring their most gloriously impractical inflatables and drift through Hereford together. The float is the main spectacle, although anyone who prefers to keep their clothes dry can buy a music-only ticket and join the party on land. Local performers take over the stage into the evening, with food vendors, a bar and the option to camp nearby and make a weekend of it.
It is funny, colourful and thoroughly Herrefordian, while also supporting local charities and river clean-ups.
Wye Float runs from 9am until 11.30pm at Hereford Rugby Club. Float spaces are limited, so this is one to book rather than discuss vaguely in the group chat until Friday night.
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King Arthur, with fewer heroic guarantees
The Three Inch Fools have arrived to the Marches. Their summer tour has already brought outdoor theatre to Powis Castle, Shrewsbury Castle and Acton Scott Hall, and this Friday they arrive on the lawn at Hay Castle with King Arthur and the Holy Fail.
A disastrous and highly improbable incident involving a large table of an undisclosed shape sends the would-be hero Arthur on a quest through blistering cold, scorching fire and a great deal of uncooperative fate. Expect live music, energetic performances, rapid costume changes and the particular pleasure of watching a small company commit fully to medieval nonsense.
The castle gates open at 5.30pm, giving you time to find a good patch of lawn and sort out dinner before the performance begins at 7pm. There will be food and a bar at the castle, picnics are welcome, and picnic boxes can be pre-ordered before noon on Thursday.
Bring a chair, blanket or cushion, plus warm layers and waterproofs. The performance continues through rain, although umbrellas are discouraged because nobody wants to watch Camelot from behind somebody else’s golf brolly.
The show lasts around 100 minutes, with a 20-minute interval. Chivalry may struggle, but the snacks should survive.
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A four-course ramble through Ludlow
My own attempt at rural dining recently involved a chippy tea by the river at the foot of Ludlow Castle (pictured above), which I still consider a strong effort. Magnalonga rather beats it, turning a walk through the Ludlow countryside into a four-course meal with local beer, cocktails, cider and cheese appearing along the way.
This Sunday’s seven-to-eight-mile route begins and ends at Ludlow Racecourse, before heading out across footpaths, woodland trails, private farmland and the rolling countryside south of town. The precise route and stop locations change each year, so walkers discover them as they go.
They will set off with Two Farmers crisps and Radnor Hills water, before reaching a puff-pastry tartlet from The Pastry Box with a glass of Hobsons Shropshire Sun. Stop two brings slow-roasted Welsh lamb in a roll, or vegetable casserole, with Ludlow Gold.
Dessert comes courtesy of The Pastry Box and Laura’s Delicious Ice Cream, accompanied by a cocktail made with Ludlow Distillery and Radnor Hills Heartease. Back at the racecourse, there is cheese from the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre and a final glass of Gwatkin cider.
The whole thing takes around four to five hours, depending on your walking speed and commitment to lingering over pudding.
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Time warp your Saturday night
I remember my parents going to The Rocky Horror Picture Show when I was younger. They came home crying with laughter. I was slightly traumatised by the whole thing. Years later, I went at college and finally understood. It is ridiculous, loud, very funny and one of those cult classics that becomes better the more the audience joins in.
This Saturday, LOOP in Shrewsbury is giving it the full treatment with an interactive sing-along screening, drag hosts, a themed quiz, costume competition, karaoke and an afterparty. Quiet cinema etiquette has no place here. Expect shouting, singing, excellent costumes and at least one person who has taken Frank-N-Furter very seriously indeed.
Dressing up is strongly encouraged, although you can still turn up in normal clothes and spend the evening regretting your restraint.
Doors open at 5pm, with the quiz at 6.30pm and the film starting at 7.30pm. Karaoke follows from 10pm, before the afterparty carries on from 11.30pm.
It is camp, chaotic and still wildly good fun decades after people first started throwing dignity out of the window. The first time may be mildly alarming. The second is usually where the obsession begins.
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THE NICE PILE
Othello at Alderford Lake | Tuesday 11 August
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men bring Shakespeare, Elizabethan costume and a deeply ill-fated marriage to the lakeside for an open-air performance of Othello. Book here.
The Shires at The Amp | Saturday 8 August
Britain’s biggest country duo bring Nashville harmonies and several highly singable heartbreaks to Hereford’s brand-new 1,400-seat Big Top venue. Book here.
Burwarton Show | Thursday 6 August
Livestock, horses, countryside competitions and the yearly chance to bump into half the Marches before you have even found the tea tent. Book here.
Farmer Phil’s Festival | Friday 7–Sunday 9 August
The proudly small festival returns to a field in Ratlinghope with three days of live music, camping and no apparent desire to become the next Glastonbury. Book here.
Summer Garden Party | Friday 7 August
The Hey Yahs are taking over Hereford Cathedral’s Chapter House Garden for an evening of live music, dancing and refreshments in rather grand surroundings. Book here.
Heart of Wales Line Summer Fair | Saturday 8 August
Makers, businesses and communities from along the railway between Shrewsbury and Swansea gather inside St Mary’s Church for a free summer fair. Book here.
Shropshire Petal Fields | 7–16 August
Wander through acres of flowers, buy a bouquet and take enough photographs to make your camera roll look suspiciously wholesome. Book here.
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