ENGLAND
The General Tarleton, North Yorkshire
Tommy Banks, one of Yorkshire’s favourite foodie sons, is best known as the chef behind Michelin-starred restaurant the Black Swan at Oldstead, but he’s no stranger to pubs. In fact, the Black Swan started out as one, with Banks working behind the bar of his family’s pub before graduating to the kitchen. In 2023, he opened the Abbey Inn in Byland, and he has recently launched a hospitality arm dedicated to restoring other pubs across the UK. First up is the eight-bedroom General Tarleton in the village of Ferrensby, near Harrogate. Food, naturally, is top notch with polished takes on pub classics made with local produce (steak and Black Sheep ale pie; burgers made from Dexter beef from the Banks’ farm) – the perfect fuel for walks along the river and into the Nidd Gorge, a local beauty spot.
Doubles from £175 B&B, generaltarletonferrensby.co.uk
The Bat and Ball, Oxfordshire
It’s dogs by the fire and dog collars at the bar at this charming pub in the village of Cuddesdon, best known for its clergy college. It was opened at the start of the year by the owners of the Lamb Inn in nearby Little Milton, and the chefs at both outposts cut their teeth at two-Michelin-star Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons down the road. The Bat and Ball is the more casual of the pair – there’s even a dart board – and dishes take typical pub fare (sausage and mash; ham, egg and chips) and dial them up with carefully sourced local ingredients. The five bedrooms have walls painted in rich autumnal shades to match the surrounding countryside, which is sandwiched between the Cotswolds and Chilterns.
Doubles from £140 B&B, batandballcuddesdon.co.uk
King’s Arms, Lake District
This family-owned pub, which reopened at the end of August, is at the heart of the Lakeland village of Hawkshead, around the corner from the Beatrix Potter gallery and the Hawkshead Grammar School museum, where a young William Wordsworth carved his name into his desk. There’s plenty of history in the oak beams and slate floors at the King’s Arms too, which dates back to the 17th century. Behind the dark-wood panelled bar is a roster of local beers including Coniston Old Man Ale and Cumbrian Ales Loweswater Gold, while the food leans towards classic with Cumberland scotch eggs and beef wellington. Just the thing to be tucking into after a stomp up nearby Latterbarrow fell.
Doubles from £145 B&B, kingsarmshawkshead.com
The Wellington at Boscastle, Cornwall
Known affectionately as The Welly, this centuries-old coaching inn overlooks Boscastle harbour on the rugged north Cornwall coast. St Austell Brewery recently splashed millions doing it up, and it shows in the cosy dining rooms, snugs and stained glass panelling. The pick of the bedrooms are the two in the pub’s turret with freestanding baths, but all 14 come with local art on the walls and OS maps and a South West Coast Path national trail book for walks. The path runs right outside: west to Tintagel Castle, birthplace of King Arthur according to legend, or round past Pentargon waterfall eastward. After a coastal hike, there’s pints of Proper Job by the fire (plump for the sofas in the Chart Room) and plates of fish and chips to look forward to, made with local catch in Gem Ale batter.
Doubles from £145 B&B, wellingtonhotelboscastle.com
The Woolpack Inn, Hampshire
Fresh from a makeover by influential interior designer Nina Campbell, this country pub is the centre of life in the tiny hamlet of Totford in the tranquil Candover valley. It is surrounded by fields and woodlands, so head chef Luke Stradling has plenty of local produce to draw on – supplemented by the pub’s large kitchen garden, right now filled with pumpkin, celeriac and winter leaves. As well as supplying almost all the vegetables on the menu, the team also donates 20% of the harvest to local charities and homeless shelters. Upstairs, eight bedrooms are named after game birds, but it’s fly fishing that’s the local star draw – casting for trout in the world renowned chalk stream of the River Itchen.
Doubles from £100 B&B, thewoolpackinn.co.uk
The Fleur de Lys, Dorset
Pub and restaurant firm Chickpea has nailed the modern country pubs with rooms formula – great food, friendly bar and keen prices for overnighters. The latest addition to the fold is the Fleur de Lys, a 17th-century inn in the village of Cranbourne. The novelist Thomas Hardy was a regular guest here and makes reference to it in Tess of the D’Urbervilles. The revamp reflects its period charm: hops hang over the large open fireplace, candles flicker on tables and, upstairs, the nine bedrooms are decorated in muted colours. Walking routes loop around Cranborne Estate, with dishes such as Brixham sea bass, venison barnsley chop and sticky toffee pudding to look forward to back at the pub afterwards.
Doubles from £120 B&B, fleurdelyscranborne.co.uk
The Penny Bun, North Yorkshire
Named after a mushroom found in local woods, the Penny Bun is a departure from your traditional boozer. With its clay-plastered walls and palette of earthy browns, the look is more wabi-sabi minimalism than brass beer pumps. Between Ilkley and Otley in the Yorkshire Dales, the recently opened pub is part of the Denton Reserve, a 1,012-hectare (2,500-acre) estate undergoing a sustainably led transformation, shifting to carbon sequestering and regenerative farming. It provides many of the ingredients found on the menu at the Penny Bun, such as Tamworth pork croquette salad or gnocchi with roasted garden beetroots. The calming aesthetic particularly suits the five bedrooms (the plum one comes with a freestanding bath), with deep beds to sink into after walks across Ilkley Moor, right outside the front door.
Doubles from £180 room-only, pennybunilkley.co.uk
The Ship, Norfolk
This summer, Sisters Siobhan and Caitriona Peyton rebooted this historic coastal inn with nine beamed bedrooms in the village of Brancaster. The cooking here has a light Mediterranean touch, and while menus have one eye on the sea (less than a mile’s walk away), game from local estates is the star turn in autumn. For Sunday lunch expect whole pot-roasted venison shoulders served with local wild mushrooms instead of the usual chicken or beef, while in the front bar settle in by the fire and tuck into a mangalitza pork sausage roll or monkfish scampi with a pint of Moon Gazer Ale. Outside, Norfolk’s big skies look especially arresting at this time of year – look out for flocks of migrating pink-footed geese – and walks cut through dunes and salt marshes.
Doubles from £145 B&B, theshipbrancaster.uk
The Leicester Arms, Kent
Across the road from the entrance to medieval Penshurst Place and Gardens, this Grade II-listed pub is looking prettier than ever after a £1.2m revamp last year. It’s easy to see why it scooped Kent’s county prize at the 2025 National Bar and Pub Awards: there are deep leather armchairs by the fire in the bar, real Kentish ales from nearby Larkins, and cut-above cooking in the dining room. The menu focuses on local produce, with Kent lamb scotch egg and Whitstable oysters, while the 11 botanically named bedrooms are decorated in an attractive heritage style. Four of them come with rolltop baths for post-walk soaks after a ramble around the Penshurst Estate past the River Medway, lakes and giant oak trees.
Doubles from £150 B&B, theleicesterarmspenshurst.co.uk
The Swan, West Sussex
The two-and-a-half year refurbishment of this Grade II-listed coaching inn in Fittleworth on the edge of the South Downs was worth the wait. Original features from its 14th-century roots mix with stylish comfort in the bar, restaurant and 12 beautifully designed rooms – though it remains “proudly old fashioned”, says owner Angus Davies. Meals served in the wood-panelled, painting-lined dining room draw on seasonal local produce (foraged ceps and fresh plum pudding on our visit) and lavish breakfasts are served in the barn in the pretty gardens. The old visitor books are fascinating: notable guests include JMW Turner, John Constable and Rudyard Kipling. There’s plenty to do nearby, from antique shopping in local villages to walks on the downs, Petworth House and Arundel castle.
Doubles from £195 B&B, swaninnfittleworth.com
The Nevill Arms, Leicestershire
With its honeyed hamlets, pretty market towns and rolling countryside, the Welland valley is in a part of the country sometimes referred to as the Notswolds (similar to the Cotswolds but without the price tag). The Nevill Arms in the village of Medbourne was revamped in 2023, with 10 bedrooms (some with four-poster beds) spread between the pub and its converted stables – and next year they’ll add a three-bedroom stone cottage next door too. On the food front, beef, pork and lamb are reared on the owner’s farm, while in the inky blue-painted bar there’s a rotating line up of Langton Brewery beers on tap – the most popular of which is an amber bitter, Inclined Plane, named after the canal lift at nearby Foxton Locks.
Doubles from £155 B&B, nevillarms.co.uk
New Inn Yealand, Lancashire
Young couple Ben and Lauren Sandiford took on the running of this seven-bedroom village inn in April. Ben brought his chef experience to the kitchen, which now turns out classy comfort food (shepherd’s pie with mash and ewe’s cheese crumb; beef and ale suet pudding) to be eaten in the beamed dining room beside the log burner. The bar is filled with a locals sipping on beers including Lancaster Blonde and Ruskin’s Best Bitter. Dogs and walking boots are welcome, and there are plenty of places to get those boots muddy nearby. RSPB Leighton Moss is within walking distance, or head for the coast at Morecambe Bay, part of the beautiful Arnside and Silverdale AONB.
Doubles from £144 B&B, thenewinnyealand.co.uk
The Merry Harriers, Surrey
This popular pub in the Surrey Hills village of Hambledon, a few miles south of Guildford, was taken on by young gun publicans Sam Fiddian-Green and Alex Winch at the end of 2023. The pair, who grew up nearby, had earned their stripes in Michelin-star restaurants (Fiddian-Green as chef, Winch as restaurant manager and sommelier) and gave the Merry Harriers a suitably foodie injection, but not enough to scare away loyal locals (wisely they didn’t dispense with the Saturday meat raffle). Local ingredients – some from Fiddian-Green’s family farm in the Wintershall valley – are magicked up into bangers and colcannon with onion gravy or autumn-favourite pheasant schnitzel. The four bedrooms above the pub have had a muted makeover; six more overlooking the garden will get some love this winter.
Doubles from £140 B&B, merryharriers.com
The George at Hathersage, Peak District
Follow in the footsteps of Charlotte Brontë on the 5½-mile trail that loops from the Peak District village of Hathersage, tracing places she included in Jane Eyre. It starts at the George, where Brontë arrived in the summer of 1845 by stagecoach, as does her heroine on her way to Thornfield (modelled on nearby North Lees Hall). The George has had a few facelifts since then, most recently last year after storm damage, but its link to the famous novelist holds, especially in the Lady C Suite (one of 24 bedrooms), where it’s said Charlotte stayed. A morning a dip in the 1930s outdoor Hathersage lido (heated at this time of year) makes a refreshing start to the day; the George’s full English breakfast a more leisurely one.
Doubles from £93 B&B, thegeorgehathersage.com
Ancient Shepherds, Cambridgeshire
In the village of Fen Ditton, three miles outside Cambridge, the Ancient Shepherds’ Grade II timber-framed building dates back to 1540. It became the village pub in 1805, and remained so until chef Mark Poynton introduced “accessible” fine dining in 2020. With a new owner, but Poynton still at the helm in the kitchen, it reopened in July, with four bedrooms at the back. Tasting menus have been chosen to reduce kitchen waste (£35 for three courses, £55 for five, £85 for seven), with dishes such as monkfish crudo, and venison loin and haunch with star anise carrot. It’s a lovely three-mile stroll along the Cam to central Cambridge, or amble the other way to the thatched village of Horningsea for an ale at the Crown and Punchbowl.
Doubles from £94 room-only, ancientshepherds.com
The Gaskell Arms, Shropshire
The medieval market town of Much Wenlock has a fascinating claim to fame. In 1890, French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin visited to learn from, and take part in, the town’s Olympian Games in his quest to revive the ancient Greek Olympics, which returned to Athens six years later. Wenlock’s Olympian Games still take place each year, and a trail tracing their history leads to the 17th-century Gaskell Arms, where opening day speeches were once held. The 14-bedroom pub was taken over by new owners this summer and it’s a fine spot to recover after other arduous endeavours – such as a hike up the limestone escarpment of Wenlock Edge – with pies and pints of Shropshire-brewed Hobsons ale.
Doubles from £92 B&B, gaskellarms.co.uk
The Royal Forest, London
On the edge of Epping Forest (a 10-minute walk from Chingford station), this blue-blooded pub is next door to the timber-framed Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge, built on Henry VIII’s orders in 1543. A few hundred years later, Queen Victoria stayed at what was then the Forest Hotel, giving the name the regal upgrade. The 28-bedroom landmark is now part of the fast-growing, Raymond Blanc-backed Heartwood Inns group, which reopened it last year with William Morris-style fabrics in the guestrooms, and sustainable-sourcing a priority for menus. Sunday roasts with bottomless trimmings are the fuel for rambles in some of Epping Forest’s 2,400 hectares – the Connaught Water and Chingford Plain circular is an almost five-mile loop through ancient oaks and beech trees.
Doubles from £119 B&B, royalforesteppingforest.com
SCOTLAND
The Taybank, Perthshire
In the idyllic village of Dunkeld, the Taybank is a gorgeous spot for a winter break. Cosy up by candlelight in the beautiful first-floor restaurant, where new head chef Nicolas Fischer dazzles diners with the best local ingredients, including vegetables from the hotel’s kitchen garden. With a noon check out as standard, relax with breakfast in bed in one of five boutique bedrooms. The breakfast hampers include croissants from nearby bakery Aran, homemade granola with jam, cheese, Great Glen charcuterie and fresh juice. Stroll by the river, then book a slot in the Braan sauna and cold water plunge pool (open October to March). Then warm up in the bar with a pie while listening to local traditional musicians.
Doubles from £190 B&B, thetaybank.co.uk
The Bellachroy, Isle of Mull
A vibrant community hub in the tiny village of Dervaig on the Isle of Mull, the Bellachroy has a lively bar and excellent restaurant. This winter is the first under new owners Thomas and Matthew Broom-Hughes and they’ll be decorating this historic inn with twinkling lights, candles and seasonal foliage, and offering special seasonal menus featuring Isle of Mull produce. The seven bedrooms have been beautifully redecorated, bringing in cosy textiles and local coffee and treats, and there’s a peaceful guest lounge with views of Loch Cuin. Nearby, walk on the beach at Calgary Bay and explore the woodland sculpture trail, or hike to the deserted village of Ardantairbh and Quinish Point.
Doubles from £170 B&B, thebellachroy.co.uk
Plockton Inn, the Highlands
The charming fishing village of Plockton makes for a wonderful west coast escape. At the Plockton Inn feast on the region’s seafood – langoustine are the speciality, known locally as Plockton prawns. Cheerful rooms above the pub or across the road have been refreshed recently with works by local artists. The village is a brilliant base for walking, whether a short stomp up to Càrn na Frith-Àird for views of Applecross and the Isle of Skye, or a coastal meander to Duncraig Castle along the shores of Loch Carron. Plockton is also just a 20-minute drive from Eilean Donan Castle and the bridge to Skye, making a day trip to the island an easy option.
Doubles from £99 B&B, highlandcoasthotels.com
The Shoregate, Fife
The Shoregate reopened in 2022 after a major restoration, creating four spacious rooms above the 18th-century village pub and restaurant. The dining room has views down the brae to the sea and feels cheery in any weather, decked out in turquoise and orange. The menu includes generous helpings of local produce, such as Scrabster cod and East Neuk surf clams in curried bisque. From here you can join the Fife Coastal Path – it’s just over 4 miles to pretty Anstruther, with views across the Firth of Forth to the Isle of May and Bass Rock. Stop for fish and chips, then retrace your steps to the Shoregate for a seat by the fire in the cosy back bar.
Doubles from £200 B&B, theshoregate.com
Knipoch House Hotel, the Highlands
This 15th-century hunting lodge near Oban was refurbished in 2024 and has a new fine-dining restaurant, 1635. Legend has it that the Thane of Cawdor was murdered at Knipoch House in 1592, inspiring Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Today it’s a calm and peaceful spot, with elegant bedrooms that have a view over the loch. Sink into comfy sofas in the spacious bar, and dine at 1635 (tasting menu, £99) or in the main restaurant for lamb rump with haggis, stone bass with leeks, or pub classics (burgers and steaks). Follow the path through the mushroom-speckled ancient woodland behind the hotel to reach a viewpoint with expansive views of Loch Feochan, with the Isle of Mull in the distance.
Doubles from £116 B&B, sonascollection.com
Glenuig Inn, the Highlands
The winding road around the Ardnamurchan peninsula can’t be rushed, so slow down and enjoy it properly with a stay at the Glenuig Inn, a traditional ceilidh house. Now leased and run by the community, with a full buyout in the final stages, there’s no better way to support the local economy. Stay in simple spacious rooms, and eat venison burgers and bowls of mussels in the bar – and catch a music session if you can. From the inn, walk through the woods to Samalaman beach, and keep an eye out for seals. For a longer walk, continue to the end of the road at Smirisary, then follow the rough trail to beautiful white sandy beaches with views of Eigg and Rum.
Doubles from £175 B&B,glenuig.com
Scotland entries written by Ailsa Sheldon
WALES
Y Castell, Carmarthenshire
The Heart of Wales Line is a single track railway that trundles from Shrewsbury to Llanelli on Wales’ south coast, past ancient castles and beneath swooping red kites. Running alongside it, a walking trail allows hikers to hop on and off along the route. Alight at Llangadog and Y Castell stands handsomely at the heart of town. Once a drovers’ stop and coaching inn, the pub was reopened last summer by new owners, who completed six freshly decorated bedrooms this spring. All have cosy Welsh blankets on the beds and jazzily tiled bathrooms, and one family room has built-in bunk beds. Hearty fish pie or Welsh madame (a cross between a welsh rarebit and an egg-topped croque madame) is fuel for those surrounding walks.
Doubles from £120 B&B, ycastell.wales
Bryntirion Inn, Eryri/Snowdonia
Palé Hall, a five-star country hotel in Eryri, opened this pub with rooms at the estate’s gates in May, a low-key foil to the hotel’s mahogany four-poster suites and Michelin green star restaurant. The Bryntirion’s six simpler bedrooms are each named after a nearby peak in the Eryri national park, which could read like a holiday hiking challenge: Yr Wyddfa, Tryfan, Cnicht, Cadair Berwyn, Elidir Fawr and Arenig Fawr. The pub itself is filled with motoring memorabilia (vintage tyre signs above the kitchen pass; the rear of a classic Mini emerging from the wall), while former Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons executive chef Luke Selby takes over the food at the estate in January, injecting his flavour to menus that already lean heavily on local ingredients such as meat from Bala butcher TJ Roberts and vegetables grown five minutes down the road.
Doubles from £140 B&B, thebryntirion.co.uk
Glan Yr Afon/Riverside, Eryri/Snowdonia
When Pennal’s village pub came up for sale in 2022, funds came from far and wide – including from Cardiff-born actor Matthew Rhys whose father had grown up nearby – to help the community to buy it. More recently, the pub on the banks of the River Dyfi scooped the top prize at the Countryside Alliance Wales pub of the year awards and has added four serene bedrooms upstairs. Walkers will love it here – the Wales Coast Path runs through Pennal, and it is on the southern fringes of the Eryri national park. As well as serving beers from Cwrw Llŷn Brewery and dishing up local lamb shanks with dauphinoise potatoes, this is a proper community hub with Welsh language practice sessions over a cuppa and an annual speed sheep shearing competition in the garden.
Doubles from £135 B&B; riversidepennal.co.uk
Bridge End Hotel, Denbighshire
This waterside pub, overlooking the River Dee in charming Llangollen, had a £1.5m makeover last year, giving a fresh look in earthy colours to the friendly bar, restaurant and eight en-suite bedrooms. Pub classics (scampi and chips; mac and cheese) are served alongside pints from the Robinsons Brewery, such as the full-bodied Golden Dragon Ale (Cwrw’r Ddraig Aur). Llangollen is well worth a potter to browse its antique stores and indie bookshops, and the short walk up to the remains of Castell Dinas above the town starts right outside the pub. The heritage trains of the Llangollen Railway chug out of the station just across the road, while up Wharf Hill behind the pub is Llangollen Wharf for a narrowboat trip to the vertiginous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
Doubles from £90 B&B; bridgeendhotel.co.uk
The Bull’s Head Inn, Ynys Môn/Anglesey
Charles Dickens stayed at Beaumaris’s Ye Olde Bull’s Head in 1859 and gave a scathing account of its food in his fictionalised book The Uncommercial Traveller. He described “side dishes of ailing sweetbreads in white poultices” and “apothecaries’ powders in rice for curry”. Fortunately, after a few changes of hands (most recently to the Inn Collection Group, who gave it a refresh in 2023) the critique doesn’t stand today. While the Bull’s listed bar is still filled with artefacts from its 500-year history, the menu runs from sides of black pudding bonbons to rich lamb massaman curry. For more history, Edward I’s unfinished masterpiece, Beaumaris Castle, is just at the end of the road, or simply pull up the drawbridge and settle in by the fire in The Bull’s lounge with a dram of Penderyn single malt.
Doubles from £105 B&B, inncollectiongroup.com
NORTHERN IRELAND
The Harbourview Hotel, County Antrim
Carnlough’s historic Londonderry Arms became the Harbourview Hotel when this inn on the Causeway Coast, in the north-west corner of the country, was recast as Ireland’s first “destination whiskey hotel”. There are still live trad music sessions in the Wee Bar, but now there are also tastings of flights of whiskeys, which include drams from local distillery Bushmills, peaty smoky numbers from Galway’s Micil and a host of other Irish craft names. Warming stews (Guinness-braised daube; traditional Irish lamb) will line the stomach for a round or two of whiskey-based cocktails. Upstairs the 35 bedrooms look out over either the harbour to the front, or the glorious glens of Antrim behind – and there will be a wee bottle of the good stuff beside the bed for a nightcap.
Doubles from £120 B&B, theharbourviewhotel.com
The Old Inn, County Down
At the heart of the now rambling Old Inn in Crawfordsburn, a 10-mile drive or train journey from Belfast, is an original thatched coaching inn that was built in 1614. The 32-room hotel is rightly proud of this long-ago birthdate – making it one of the oldest inns in Ireland – and there’s the 1614 Bar where you can sip on 1614 gin, a new collaboration with local Rademon distillery. More recently, the much-loved spot was bought by the Galgorm Collection in 2021, which added an outdoor spa the following year. Just last month, the Old Inn was crowned AA Hotel of the Year. Walks run from the door through the forests of Crawfordsburn country park, past a railway viaduct and waterfalls and loop down to beaches on the coast.
Doubles from £170 B&B, theoldinn.com
Additional reporting by Jane Dunford
Room prices are the cheapest available for November and December and are correct at time of publishing
