Free Travel Guide to North Yorkshire Pubs

7/25/2019 Free Travel Guide to North Yorkshire Pubs

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WorthWhile eMagazines Guide to

North Yorkshire Pubs

Your first day in a new place can be both riveting and disorienting. The goal by the end of your

stay should be to remain riveted, but be anything but disoriented. It's not as easy as it sounds;

the feeling that you missed something, or that you never quite got a handle on the quicksilver

nature of a place, can linger long after you leave.

There are a lot of places to go clubbing in the UK, and the nightlife is extremely vibrant that

can be both riveting and disorienting - which is not always good when you are on a vacation.

The goal by the end of your stay should be to remain riveted, but be anything but disoriented.

For a true local experience, like real ales and great food you will have to rely on local pubs. So

cheer up for we not only compile a list of local pubs, but the best North Yorkshire has to offer.


2/10

The George and Dragon, Hudswell

Small, friendly and community-owned; you can glow with virtue in this beautiful spot as well as enjoyingthe locally-sourced food and a pint of Black Sheep or guest ales. The pub is a freehouse and runs a shop,

internet access and allotments for the 200-odd locals, so there's always something going off. Pub games

include darts, bowls and cribbage and there's a garden. The pub is often frequented by visitors from across

the world who are doing the nearby Coast to Coast Walk. Landlady Jackie Stubbs and her mum Margaret

are naturals at their job.


3/10

The White Lion Inn, Cray

The prettiest of the three pubs on upper Wharfedale's loveliest walk, the triangle between Cray, Buckden

and Hubberholme. The ashes of the writer JB Priestley were scattered at Hubberholme, which he called"one of the smallest and pleasant places in the world". True, but Cray is even smaller and more pleasant.

The pub is very small and simple with stone-flagged floors, low ceilings and log fire in season. Trout on the

menu come from nearby Kilnsey, meat from Dales farms and cheese, natch, from over the narrow pass in

Wensleydale. There's endless space outdoors plus a babbling stream and you can stay overnight in

cottagey rooms.


4/10

The Fountaine Inn, Linton

This historic whitewashed inn stands in a fascinating backwater, overlooking a tiny green but with

Vanbrugh's typically monumental Fountaine hospital and almshouses to one side. The pub is one of five

in the Skipton-based Individual Inns group, a mini-chain which for once lives up to its name. The

Fountaine's traditional exterior goes with a smart, cool interior, excellent menu and plentiful range of

food and drink. Linton can be crowded in season, but limited parking and the fleshpots of nearby

Grassington usually means that visitorsespecially walkerscan find room.


5/10

The Bridge Inn, Grinton

A roomy village pub by the tumbling river Swale with a team of friendly staff, mostly from the surrounding

village. There's plenty of room outside but if it's cold or wet, landlord Andrew Atkin makes a point of

welcoming streaming cagoules and muddy boots. Log fires help, too, in such conditions, along with good

and varied foodsome of it shot by Atkin himself and Jennings beer, plus a constantly changing range

of guest ales. Comfy accommodation and walks to die for, both in beautiful countryside and among the

ghostly ruins of vanished mineral mines.


6/10

The Lion Inn, Blakey Ridge

An oasis amid the grandeur of the North York Moors with the extra-friendly appeal of a place which in

winter is regularly snowed-in. Indoors is darkly snug, warm and tempting, but the vistas outside are

tremendous. They look even better over a Black Sheep, Theakstons, Thwaites, Copper Dragon ... the Lion

is beer heaven but with racks of wine, spirits and soft drinks as well. There are 13 rooms, one with a four-

poster, and all manner of small services to hardy explorers including secure storage for bikes. The kitchen

has never heard of nouvelle cuisine; this is large portion land.


7/10

The Horseshoe Hotel and Ye (or "Top") Horseshoe, Egton Bridge

Shared honours for two pubs with (almost) similar names in this interesting enclave of the "old religion".

Henry VIII's reformation never really made it here and the Catholic church is still the biggest and busiest

place of worship. The Horseshoe Hotel has a lovely position by the river Esk, a handsome Georgian building

with stones carved with the markers of the local Egton estate. Pleasant panelled rooms inside, good food

and beer and friendly staff. Ye Horseshoe, higher up the hill (hence "Top") has a lively landlord, plentiful

pies, vegetarian and senior options and at least six real ales on the go. You can stay comfortably at both

pubs.


8/10

The Sportsman's Arms, Wath

They have served the same Eton Mess recipe here for more than 30 years and landlords Ray and Jane

Carter and their family have the art of running a pub completely mastered. Their staff are proof of this,

too however busy, they have a way of fitting you into the smallish bar or large garden and terrace.

Grander dining takes place in a sit-down, bookable restaurant. Wath is a sweet hamlet in a wonderful area

for walking; the circular route from Pateley Bridge is especially good, four miles out along the northern

fellside and back along the river. Don't miss Wath's tiny Methodist chapel at the end of a row of cottages;and don't fall off the playground seesaw and break your arm, as I did when I was seven.


9/10

The Horseshoe, Levisham

A welcoming pub in a classic North York Moors village, all timeworn stone and red pantiles amid the

surrounding moors which roll away to the horizon. Listen out, and you'll hear the puff and occasional hoot

of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway steam trains. The line has a station, though it's a good step uphill

to the pub. Rewards await on a menu which sources fish from Whitby and Hartlepool skippers and real

ale from Cropton brewery and Black Sheep. The pub's owners Charles and Toby Wood also run The Fox

and Rabbit (foxandrabbit.co.uk) at nearby Lockton which is less picturesquely sited but equally good. Try

both on a gentle morning or afternoon round walk.


10/10

The Birch Hall Inn, Beck Hole

This is a tiny place"two bars with a sweet shop in the middle", say landlords Neil and Glenys Crampton

but exceedingly pretty and in the middle of the gentler part of the North York Moors which has become

known as Heartbeat Country thanks to the nostalgic TV series. Like the now sadly-closed Sun Inn at Spout

House in Bilsdale, it is pretty basic but the beer is hand-pulled and the pork pies, Beck Hole butties and

Beer Cake are delicious and cheap. The record number of customers crammed into the pub is 30 plus two

dogs, but there is a riverside garden. Cute though it is, the pub-and-shop arrangement is entirely "real".

It dates back to the early 19th century when railway navvies and miners abounded and this pretty spot

was part of the Industrial Revolution.

Free Travel Guide to North Yorkshire Pubs

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