Dining pubs, gastropubs
They’ve got a lovely view from the garden of the Rat Inn, over the Tyne Valley towards pretty Corbridge. Inside the pub is lovely too, one of those (seemingly) effortlessly ideal pub interiors, dark timbers, fireplace, brass whatsits and a chalked-up menu. The big thing at The Rat is their sharing steaks, Chateaubriand and rib …
There’s a lovely walk you can do from Hutton-le-Hole via Spaunton to Lastingham and then back along the edge of the moor, it’s only four miles or a couple of hours and all three villages are lovely. We came back to Lastingham in the evening for dinner at The Blacksmith’s Arms, an atmospheric little inn …
Got a few reviews in a bunch, from a week touring parts of the north of England. As usual we found a whole lot of warm, hospitable and brilliant places to stay and eat and explore. The Fox & Hounds in Sinnington was our first stop. The village is tiny, tucked up at the foot …
The perils of building a pub lunch into a proper walk in the country. By “proper” I mean a 16km hike, not a hour’s stroll. And the perils are clear: not eating enough beforehand (worried about not having an appetite) and so getting starving hungry on the walk, making the last hill before the pub …
Coming back from a long enough trip abroad (this time, a six week jaunt around northern Spain) gives you the chance to look at what’s back home with a somewhat fresh gaze. At least, if you try hard enough. The English pub really is perhaps the most distinctive piece of our human landscape, very different …
