There’s a particular quality to summer on the River Trent. The water catches the light differently – brighter, busier with wildlife, the banks green and full. At Marina Quays by Cairns Homes, the season changes how you use the house as much as how you use the town. Sliding doors stay open. The decks come into their own. The mooring, for those who have one, stops being an amenity and starts being a habit.
If you’re thinking about making the move to Marina Quays, here is what the warmer months actually look like when you live here.
Events on the river and in the town
Newark’s event calendar is busier than that of most market towns of its size, and the summer months carry the bulk of it.
The Newark Duck Race takes place on the River Trent in late June – a community event that has become something of a fixture in the town’s summer calendar, drawing families and locals to the riverbank for an afternoon. The Dragon Boat Festival follows in September, with team racing on the Trent that brings the marina and riverside areas to life in a way that is genuinely worth watching.
The Newark Festival – a free, multi-day music and arts event held in and around Newark Castle – has been running since 1997 and draws upwards of 50,000 people across the August bank holiday weekend. Stages in the castle grounds, street performers in the market square, food stalls, and a diverse programme of indie, folk and world music. It is the kind of event that is far more enjoyable when you can walk home afterwards rather than worry about a car.
The Newark Book Festival runs in July and brings authors, workshops and talks to the Palace Theatre and other venues around the town. The CAMRA Beer Festival, held in late May, turns the town’s attention rather enjoyably toward real ale and craft beer for a long weekend. For those who prefer something more niche, the Newark Steampunk Festival – headquartered around the Royal Market – is exactly as entertaining as it sounds.
The Race to the Castle paddle board event on the Trent in April/May is worth noting for those with a mooring: it runs the river through Newark and watching it from a Marina Quays deck has an obvious appeal.
Newark Market and the town centre
Newark’s Royal Market is one of the largest market squares in the East Midlands. In the summer months, it runs markets several times a week, with specialist antiques fairs that draw serious collectors from across the county, sitting alongside the regular traders. Independent shops and boutiques line the streets around it – the kind of town centre that rewards an unhurried morning rather than a quick visit.
A ten-minute walk or a short drive from Marina Quays, the town is close enough to visit easily without the development itself ever feeling urban. The balance between access and quiet is one of Marina Quays’ less obvious advantages.
Where to eat and drink
Newark has a better dining scene than its size tends to suggest, and summer opens up the outdoor tables.
Gannets Daycafé & Bistrot – open since 1979 in an elegant Georgian building directly opposite the castle ruins – is the town’s most established café and one of the better morning options in Nottinghamshire. Freshly cooked breakfasts, daily specials and genuinely good coffee, served across multiple floors with a small outside courtyard at the back.
For a meal by the river, The Riverside Pub & Kitchen in Farndon – a short drive from Marina Quays – has outdoor seating that catches the afternoon sun, and a kitchen that turns out above-average pub food. The Bromley at Fiskerton, on the Trent a few miles further, is the more polished option: a countryside gastropub with riverside seating, a properly considered menu built around local produce, and the kind of atmosphere that makes a Sunday lunch run comfortably into the afternoon.
Newark Castle and the National Civil War Centre
The castle grounds sit directly on the Trent – the same stretch of river that runs past Marina Quays – and in summer host a programme of free guided tours, historical re-enactments and children’s activities that make them worth revisiting rather than ticking off once. The National Civil War Centre, housed in the adjacent Gilstrap Centre, is one of the better regional museums in the East Midlands: well-designed, thoughtful, and genuinely more interesting than most people expect.
Note: the castle gatehouse is currently undergoing restoration works, and some areas of the grounds are partially restricted. Full reopening is anticipated in autumn 2026.
Sherwood Forest and the wider countryside
Sherwood Forest is around 20 minutes from Marina Quays by car. The Major Oak is the obvious draw, but the forest offers proper woodland walking away from the visitor centre paths, quieter and more interesting for it. The Robin Hood Festival runs in August – one of the region’s larger outdoor history events, with medieval re-enactment, archery and living history camps.
The villages around Newark reward an afternoon: Farndon and Collingham are both within easy reach, each with a good pub and a walk back along the river or through farmland. The Trent Valley Way, a long-distance footpath that runs directly through Newark, opens the wider countryside in both directions from Marina Quays’ front gate.
On the water
Six of the homes at Marina Quays include a private 40-foot mooring. In summer, that changes the equation. The non-tidal Trent is navigable upriver toward Nottingham and downriver toward Lincoln and the Fossdyke – one of England’s oldest navigable waterways. A day on the river in June or July, stopping for lunch at a riverside pub, is the kind of experience that is difficult to access from almost anywhere else in the region and fully accessible when you live at Marina Quays.
Five homes remain available at Marina Quays. To register your interest or arrange a viewing, contact Caroline Taylor at Cairns Homes on 07919 532000 or at info@cairnshomes.co.uk.
