Six of the Best Pub Walks
| Published: 21st July 2007 23:11 |
Reap the rewards of a bracing country stroll with a hearthside pint in one of Britain's best pubs
The best ones, says Fiona Stapley, "are so cosy you want to hug yourself." She's talking about pubs and, as editor of The Good Pub Guide, she should know. "Nothing matches the atmosphere in a proper British boozer," she adds. "Crackling fires; comfy, battered furniture; local ales; decent red wine; and simple, rib-sticking food." We asked Fiona to pick her all-time favourites from the 5,000 in her guide. Then we added a walk - straight from the pub door, and just far enough to freshen you up for the fireside.
Unless stated, pubs open daily 11am-11pm; room rates per double, B&B.
1 PEN-Y-GWRYD
Nant Gwynant, Gwynedd
You can smell the history of this mountain inn as you enter - perhaps because one bar has a collection of manky old boots from illustrious mountaineers. You can also see the signatures of Hillary and Norgay on the ceiling - they used Pen-y-Gwryd as a base while training for Everest in 1953.
The inn also acts as a mountain rescue station (with its own chapel and sauna) and I always see climbers in there. Seats face the windows, so you get full-frontal views of Snowdonia.
The walk The Pen-y-Gwryd huddles beside a remote crossroads in the shadow of Snowdon. The most popular start point for the summit, Pen-y-Pass, is a kilometre or so to the west. If the weather is vicious, walk the first three kilometres on the Miners' Track to Llyn Llydaw, then double back.
Less arduous is the Dyffryn Low Level Trail: pick it up east of Pen-y-Gwryd on the A4086. Follow it by the trickling Nant Gwryd for five kilometres, cross the road and return along the skirts of the Glyders to the inn. Beauty has rarely looked bleaker.
Details Pen-y-Gwryd (01286 870211, www.pyg.co.uk) is closed November and December, open weekends only in January and February; chicken and leek pie, £6; doubles from £70. Map: OS Explorer OL17.
2 THE ROYAL OAK
Fritham, Hampshire
This pub is beside the kind of New Forest village green where the cottages seem to melt into the woods. When I last visited, there were pigs and wild ponies snuffling on the grass - it's the only part of Britain where you still get that. The landlord runs livestock in the forest.
The pub is thatch-and-cob, and it feels like walking into someone's front parlour. There are beams holding up the ceiling - and, like as not, a bunch of farmers propping up the walls. It's the simple rusticity that I love: home-made bread, their own pâté and home-baked pork pie. You can go a long way to find a home-baked pork pie these days.
The walk Fritham is on a dead-end road in the less touristy part of the New Forest, north of the A31. Park by the green and follow the lane northwest, where it dwindles into a track through Eyeworth Wood. The forest has a magic of its own in winter, when the naked oaks throw spooky shapes - you've a better than even chance of glimpsing roaming ponies and deer. Bear west then south through the trees, shadowing the boundary of Fritham Plain. There's a clear track back to the pub across the plain - or double the distance to 10km by circling further south through Anses Wood.
Details The Royal Oak (023 8081 2606) is closed 3pm-6pm weekdays October to March; a pork-pie ploughman's, £6. Map: OS Explorer OL22.
3 THE WHITE HORSE
Hedgerley, Buckinghamshire
It's so refreshing to come across a country pub less than five kilometres from the M40 that isn't full of City types from Gerrards Cross. They keep seven real ales here, which they tap from the barrel behind a tiny hatch counter. I always go safe in the knowledge I'm going to have a good time.
The walk Follow the path beside the village pond into Church Wood. It's one of the RSPB's smallest bird reserves, and you may hear the rap of a great-spotted woodpecker. If your legs need more stretching, go due west, to Pennlands Farm. Keep on across the A355 and you're in Egypt Woods, in the Burnham Beeches nature reserve: a place of twisting oaks and skittering squirrels.
Details The White Horse (01753 643225) is closed 2.30pm-5pm weekdays; lamb broth with crusty bread, £4.25. Map: OS Explorer 172.
4 THE NAGS HEAD
Malvern, Worcestershire
This is a town pub, set under the hem of the Malvern Hills, waiting to gather you in as you hurry down off Worcestershire Beacon. Malvern looks lovely in winter, misty and lit with vintage gas lamps. The pub is an idiosyncratic warren of rooms with leather armchairs and church pews. It has a coal fire, houseplants and lots of books you might actually want to read. It feels quite Victorian, actually. They serve 11 real ales and even more single malts. The food is good and simple - and takes a reassuringly long time to come.
The walk The Malvern Hills are ideal for a winter walk - maximum elevation for minimum effort. Start along St Ann's Road, in Great Malvern, and turn right across the flanks of North Hill. Beyond Ivy Scar Rocks, zigzag to the summit - at 396m, just steep enough to ruddy your cheeks. Track south along the ridge to conquer Worcestershire Beacon. The Cotswolds plain stretches one way, Wales the other, and you can see how local boy Elgar came to write Pomp and Circumstance. Descending, dodge left before the B4218 and take a path to St Ann's Well, fabled source of Malvern's spa water. More potent refreshment beckons in Bank Street - the Nags Head.
Details The Nags Head (01684 574373) has home-made steak and Stilton pie, £8.50. Map: OS Explorer 190.
5 THE MOULIN
Moulin, Perthshire
Country inns in Scotland can be a bit antiseptic, and from the outside this could be the same: imposing and whitewashed, with lots of extensions. But the oldest part - the original coaching inn, dating from 1695 - still feels like a village local. It has fresh flowers and open fires, dominoes and bar billiards. What clinches it is that they brew their own ales, in the stable across the street. There are also robust lunches, although I can't vouch for the deep-fried haggis with piquant sauce.
The walk Pitlochry is one of those Victorian inland resorts, cheerful and attractive - with Scotland's oldest distillery and nature trails along Loch Faskally. For a six-kilometre sharpener from the inn, head west via Balnacraig Farm towards the Tay Forest Park. The lane becomes a track into the forest, all Christmassy with Norwegian spruce and Scots pine. Pick up the Dunmore Trail to the summit of Craigower: here the tree canopy opens to reveal wide views of lochs and bens, and the wind can blow the bags from under your eyes. Follow yellow waymarks north off the hilltop, back around the eastern slopes on a forestry road to rejoin your outward route.
Details The Moulin (01796 472196) has haggis, neeps and tatties from £6.50; doubles from £70. Map: OS Explorer 386.
6 THE CB INN
Arkengarthdale, Yorkshire
The licensees here have been really clever, creating a top-notch food pub with pretty, rustic bedrooms - but keeping it informal, with an especially cracking fire. There's definitely a foodie feel to the place, and the landlord, Charles, does the cooking himself, with local ingredients and lots of imagination. Who'd think of a black pudding, olive, pancetta and avocado salad?
The walk Arkengarthdale is the northernmost dale of all, starkly scenic and nothing like as busy as Swaledale, which it adjoins. That's possibly why it was used as a location for the cow-molesting BBC classic All Creatures Great and Small. Begin by crossing the dale to Scar House and then aim south through woods into Langthwaite village. It has a postage-stamp square, honey-coloured cottages, a traditional shop and another super pub, the Red Lion.
Cross Arkle Beck and turn left through Arkle Town to pick up a heathery track southwest across Calver Hill. Soon you'll be among the shafts and shake holes of 19th-century lead workings, now abandoned to the ghosts. Continue west to Fore Gill Gate and turn right back to the inn. You'll have earned your lunch - and Charles's home-made ice cream.
Details The CB Inn (01748 884567, www.cbinn.co.uk) has pot-roast lamb with honey, tomato and rosemary sauce, £8.60; doubles from £85. Map: OS Explorer OL30.
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