The Cider Barn is reached down a wooded track on the Dillington Estate at Whitelackington, just outside Ilminster, and part of its charm is that you have no real sense of it until you are standing in front of it. It is an old agricultural barn of stone and thatch — thatch on a barn is an uncommon thing and rather lovely — with its original beams still in place and the underside of the roof left exposed. Fairy lighting and rope-and-metal chandeliers do the rest. It needs remarkably little decoration to look the way it does in the photographs.
The barn seats 120 for dinner and opens onto a walled garden and a sunlit courtyard, which between them take the evening up to 150. A stretch tent can cover part of the garden if the forecast turns awkward, and the courtyard is where drinks and the best part of a summer afternoon tend to end up. You can marry under the historic archway or make an entrance through the barn doors, and St Mary’s church stands next door for couples who want a church ceremony.
It is run as a blank canvas, which suits people who would rather build their own day: bring any caterer you like, bring your own drink without corkage, and have the barn and its garden entirely to yourselves for the duration. Accommodation comes from a handful of renovated cottages across the estate, all within a couple of miles, done to a boutique-hotel standard and sleeping anything from a couple to a large group. Decorating access runs from the Friday morning, which takes a great deal of pressure off the wedding morning itself.
Where the band plays
A cider barn is a good room for live music. Stone, timber and a high roof give a band plenty of air to play into, and there is no carpet or curtain to swallow the bottom end, so a four-piece fills it comfortably and a smaller act sounds bigger than you would expect. The thatch takes a little of the hardness off the top end, which makes it a kinder room than a metal-roofed barn of the same size. With the doors open onto the courtyard on a summer evening, it is a difficult place to beat.
Building the day around an 11 o’clock finish
Music here is expected to stop at 11pm, with drinks called shortly afterwards and guests away by midnight, and that is worth knowing at the beginning rather than discovering over dinner. It is not a problem, but it is a different shape of evening: everything moves forward, the first dance happens earlier than you might have pictured it, and the band plays one long stretch or a pair of tight sets rather than spreading out across the night. Some evenings here have run closer to midnight, so confirm your own arrangement when you book. Planned for knowingly, an 11pm finish is a night that ends on a high rather than fading out.
Arriving and setting up
Estate access means private lanes, gates and that wooded track, none of it difficult but all of it easier with instructions. Tell the band where to arrive, when the gate will be unlocked and where a van can be left, and the get-in is entirely straightforward. There is parking on site, the ground is level enough for trolleys, and access for anyone with mobility difficulties is good.
Bands available in Somerset and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Somerset.
- Somerset Wedding Bands
- Events Bands in Somerset
- Tribute Acts in Somerset
- Somerset Wedding DJs
- Corporate Entertainment in Somerset
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.