Website feature · Newcastle, Co. Down
Put the hotel before the destination.
Before vs after
Drag the handle. Left: The Donard's current official homepage. Right: a property-first feature that keeps its identity and booking route.
Independent concept. Created from public information to demonstrate an idea. Not commissioned or approved by the business shown.
See it in motion
A still can't show the hero, the menus or how fast you reach the main action. These are ten-second visits to each version, captured the same way.
The build-day re-check found a new official website at thedonard.co.uk, including a working booking search. That evidence retires the original first-website premise. The live page shown here is the new baseline, not the dead domain captured three days earlier.
The reasoning, in order
Three changes to make the hotel recognisable sooner.
The official homepage opens on a wide Mournes landscape. It sets the place beautifully, but the first screen does not show the red-brick Main Street building a guest will arrive at.
Change: A property-first opening from a disclosed visualisation of the real frontage, so the first frame belongs to this hotel.
Deep navy, soft gold, a line drawing of the corner turret and ESTD 1946 — the official site already has a clear look.
Change: Carry that navy, gold, wide-spaced name and founding date. Do not reuse the unlicensed logo artwork or invent a studio crest.
The current site already puts its booking search on the first screen. Replacing that working route would solve nothing.
Change: Keep the official engine as the handoff and place the hotel's published starting rates beside it.
Sources & limits
Clear about what is real.
On 27 July 2026 The Donard had a new official site at thedonard.co.uk — navy-and-gold identity, property pages and a working booking search. Room count, types and starting rates come from that Rooms page. An earlier dead-domain capture is kept only as dated case-study history.
The exterior hero is a disclosed generated visualisation based on Eric Jones's 2023 Main Street photograph (CC BY-SA 2.0). Shutters are shown open and parked cars removed; it is not a documentary photograph. The hotel logo informed the palette and ESTD 1946 date; the unlicensed artwork itself is not reused.
This was not commissioned or approved by The Donard. It is a free website idea: put the hotel before the destination.
- The Donard's current official homepage and booking search
- Official Rooms page used for room types and starting rates
- Eric Jones's source photograph, CC BY-SA 2.0