A former landlady of an iconic country hotel and bar says she is ’grieving’ its loss in a devastating fire.

The Ballacallin Hotel in Dalby has been left a soot-blackened roofless shell following the major blaze in the early hours of Tuesday morning

Lindsay Quayle, who ran the Ballacallin as a hotel, pub and restaurant for seven years from 1987, said: ’I was so sad when I heard about the fire.

’I know it sounds really cheesy but I feel like I’m grieving. I just cannot believe it.

’It was so iconic. You would sit out and watch the sunset over Niarbyl, it was just magical.’

Lindsay and her then partner took over the place in 1987 and quickly built up its reputation for good food.

She said: ’I’ve happy memories.

’We took it over from the Coxes who ran it as a pub with a dining room.

’I had a catering background and we started off getting the place clean and tidy and doing a bit of food with a small menu and we gradually built it up. People used to travel miles for our fish and chips!

’We started doing Sunday lunches and the early 1990s we were really busy all the time.

’We were the first pub to offer a minibus service to take pool teams home and parties of people wanting to come for a meal and a drink and not have to drive.’

They modernised the bedrooms, making them all en-suite.

And the hotel had regular visitors staying each year for the TT. Another highlight would be the visit by the Triumph Owners’ Club.

The Ballacallin actually started out as a farmhouse.

In the 1950s a couple introduced meals and entertainment at the weekends.

For a time it was bought by business tycoon Albert Gubay and renovated before being run in the early 70s by Evan and Mona Gell who came there from the Creek Inn, Peel, and who got the Ballacallin established as an eatery and hotel.

The Ballacallin was subsequently run by the Ford famly.

For Lindsay it was also a family home where she brought up three of her children Ruth, Stephanie and Dan.

’It was a lovely place to bring up kids,’ she said.

Dan Davies, chief executive of the Department of Home Affairs, recalled: ’The place was really buzzing at the time, my mum was the chef and she got the place a really good reputation. TT week used to be amazing too.’

In 1994 Lindsay and her partner sold the Ballacallin to a couple in Glen Maye who went on to sell it to Simon and Fenella Costain who ran it as a guesthouse and bar until it closed in 2007.

In 2009 an application by Paxton Enterprises to turn the old building into private accommodation was approved after an appeal was dismissed by a planning inspector.

It was subsequently put up for sale with an asking price of £750,000. In recent years, the vacant building had become increasingly derelict.

Lindsay wonders what happened to the Ballacallin sign which featured Gef the Mongoose.

She said the brewery agreed to pay for a new sign and they held a competition to come up with a design. The winning one featured the Dalby Spook holding a glass of beer.