Winter is when a pub with rooms earns its keep. You want a fire you can get close to, food that rewards the walk you’ve just done, and a bed upstairs so nobody has to drive home. As Sawday’s chief pub inspector, I have been inspecting Britain’s most characterful places to stay for more than 30 years, and every one of these pubs has been visited in person. These are the ones I would book myself this winter, with open fires, hearty kitchens, cosy rooms and walking country starting at the door…
The Royal Forest, Chingford, east London
A striking 19th-century landmark on the edge of Epping Forest, this pub reopened after a careful restoration, with stained glass, heritage detail. There are 28 bedrooms with stunning interiors, and roll-top baths with views into the treetops. The seasonal menu has a three-star sustainability rating – the Sunday roast rewards a long walk first. Woodland and heath trails start across the road. Doubles from £89, one accessible room.
The Dirty Habit, Hollingbourne, Kent
Monks brewed here in the 11th century, and pilgrims stopped on their way to Canterbury. Today you will be treated to Kentish ale and generous food. Oak panelling, low beams and real fires have survived, with boutique bedrooms above the bar. The Pilgrims’ Way and the North Downs Way run along the back of the building, so a winter walk takes no planning at all, and Leeds Castle is just five minutes away. Doubles from £90.
The Plume of Feathers, Mitchell, Cornwall
A 16th-century coaching inn sitting between Cornwall’s two coasts. Dinner is beside the log fire, breakfast is in the conservatory and the pub classics are cooked with real care. Twenty rooms in converted barns and stables with deep beds provide a great night’s kip. Crantock and Holywell Bay are 15 minutes away, and the South West Coast Path is arguably at its best in winter. Doubles from £110.
The Bradley Hare, Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire
Every public room here has a fire going. There are rugs over flagstones and floorboards, armchairs by the wood burner, candlelight, antique furniture and a wall of pewter. Twelve bedrooms are split between the inn and the old Coach House. Food is seasonal, local and close to zero waste. A 6.5-mile circular walk leaves the village through woods and fields, past a lost medieval settlement and priory ruins. Doubles from £150.
The Red Lion Inn, Babcary, Somerset
Thatched, 17th-century and sitting in a village most people drive straight past on the A303. The bar is the place to be in the colder months, with sofas pulled up to the fire, Otter ale and farm cider on tap, and a kitchen that treats Somerset produce properly. Take in some air with short flat walks around Babcary Meadows nature reserve, and retire to one of six roomy bedrooms with shuttered windows and fine linen. Doubles from £115, one accessible room.
The Farmers Arms, Woolsery, Devon
Part of a wider rural restoration that has brought back not just the pub but also the village shop and fish and chips. Inside the pub, there is a hop-strung traditional bar, a pint of Otter by the fire, log burners to settle beside and food that mostly comes from their own farm up the road. Rooms and cottages can be found spread around the village. Hartland Point and the wildest stretch of the South West Coast Path are close. Doubles from £220.
The Swan, Wedmore, Somerset
The Swan is open all day, from breakfast through to dinner, which makes it a sound winter base. There are wood floors, leather chairs, a wood burner keeping things toasty and seven bedrooms, two with baths in the room. Tom Blake’s hearty country cooking, with rare-breed pork from the village butcher, long Sunday lunches and cider from Wilkins down the road make it well worth the visit. Walk the Levels, climb Glastonbury Tor or take the Mendips. Doubles from £85.
The Royal Oak, Ramsden, Oxfordshire
This 17th-century village inn in the quieter western Cotswolds was rescued by a local couple when it was close to becoming flats. It has crackling log fires, bare stone, low beams and five bedrooms finished to feel like a friend’s spare room. Food-wise, you will dine on classic seasonal pub cooking. Walks from the door lead you into the Evenlode Valley, with Wychwood Forest and Blenheim nearby. Doubles from £150.
The Felin Fach Griffin, Felin Fach, Powys, Wales
The Inkin brothers’ first inn sits between the Black Mountains and Bannau Brycheiniog (formely the Brecon Beacons). Eight bedrooms with Welsh blankets will keep you cosy, while downstairs are open fires, a simmering Aga, big squishy sofas, and art borrowed from a Brecon gallery. Much of dinner comes from the half-acre kitchen garden and the hills around it, and Hay-on-Wye is 20 minutes away for bookshop-browsing and riverside walks. Doubles from £182.
The Duncombe Arms, Ellastone, Staffordshire
Johnny and Laura Greenall bought this boarded-up village pub and made it one of the best in the Midlands, with a warren of small rooms with open fires, Duncombe Ale brewed for the bar, craft gins and dominoes by the hearth. It has 12 elegant bedrooms in Walnut House behind, looking over the Dove Valley and Peak District walks from the door. Doubles from £160, one accessible room.
The Blind Bull, Little Hucklow, Derbyshire
This beautifully restored 12th-century inn cooks some of the most ambitious food in the Peak District. Real ales, open fires, comfy armchairs round the hearth and dogs under the table make it ideal for a winter stay. There are five rooms in the Old Piggery plus a cottage, each with its own wood-burning stove. Eyam, Tideswell and miles of limestone walking sit on the doorstep. Doubles from £120.
The Wild Duck Inn, Ewen, Gloucestershire
Reopened last summer after seven years shut, The Wild Duck was worth the wait. Chunky beams, flagstones, exposed stone and a vast fireplace complete the cosy set-up. Walk across the fields from Ewen to where the Thames Path begins. Twenty bedrooms, several with copper tubs, and two treatment rooms if the walk was ambitious await your return. Food is wood-roasted and properly local. Doubles from £175, one accessible room.
Coach & Horses, Bolton-by-Bowland, Lancashire
A 1700s coaching inn brought back from years of neglect. There are original flagstones, wingback chairs to sink into, roaring fires and a glass wall on to the micro-brewery, so order a pint of their own. It has seven bedrooms, smart bathrooms, and a breakfast built for a long day out. The Trough of Bowland and Ribble Valley offer some of the best walking in the North. Doubles from £130.
The Black Bull, Sedbergh, Cumbria
Sedbergh is one of Britain’s three book towns, alongside Hay-on-Wye and Wigtown, and has the added charm of the Howgill Fells rising behind it. This restored 17th-century coaching inn has 17 bedrooms, Herdwick wool blankets woven down the street, and fires in the bar. Nina Matsunaga’s cooking brings her German and Japanese heritage to Dales ingredients. It’s quieter than the Lakes, and the Dales start at the end of the road. Doubles from £99.
Lord Crewe Arms, Blanchland, Northumberland
Once the abbot’s lodge, now a Grade II* listed inn in a village built from the abbey’s stone. Ancient flags, inglenook fireplaces, fortress walls and a bar in the vaulted crypt where the fire is always lit make it a pretty unbeatable getaway. Some bedrooms have fires and they all have deep baths and good beds. Waymarked walks leave from the door on to North Pennine moorland. Doubles from £204.
The Dabbling Duck, Great Massingham, Norfolk
This pub looks out over the village green and its tree-fringed ponds, while inside you get flint walls, stone floors and cosy fireplaces. Game comes off the owners’ shoot and straight onto the menu through the winter. There are 13 rooms, three named after pilots from the wartime airfield. Enjoy walks over flat west Norfolk fields and old Roman tracks, with the coast path close by. Doubles from £100.
The Bear Inn, Hodnet, Shropshire
Five hundred years of coaching inn has been restored by the family that owns Hodnet Hall across the road. There are open fires, winding corridors, low ceilings and 12 bedrooms named after trees. The kitchen holds three AA rosettes and picks vegetables from the Hall’s 200-year-old walled garden, while beef comes from the estate’s cattle. Walks start in the village and The Wrekin – a prominent hill – is 15 minutes away. Doubles from £120.
Y Castell, Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, Wales
A Georgian drovers’ inn, carefully restored, in the Tywi Valley on the western edge of Bannau Brycheiniog. The bar is small and warm, with Welsh spirits, local beer and apple juice pressed at the Dynevor orchard. There are six bedrooms. Food comes from the valley’s producers and Carreg Cennen Castle and the hills are close for a brisk clear-day walk. Doubles from £130.
The Meikleour Arms, Meikleour, Perth & Kinross, Scotland
This inn was built in 1820 on one of eastern Scotland’s oldest estates and is still owned by it. Its own ale, 50-odd malts and Franco-Scottish cooking, with venison from Meikleour Forest, game through the in-house butchery, and vegetables from the walled garden are not to be missed. Rooms and cottages are calm and antique-filled, and the cottages have a wood burner and log supply. Walk the North Wood down to the Tay. Doubles from £120.
The Three Hills, Bartlow, Cambridgeshire
An 1847 alehouse that now doubles as a village hall, library and dining room. Find the snug, take a book off the shelf and settle in next to the roaring fire. Six bedrooms with wool throws and fresh flowers await, and the kitchen holds two AA rosettes, so you know the food is good. Footpaths follow the River Granta and climb the Roman burial mounds behind. Doubles from £100.
For more information on any of the pubs, see sawdays.co.uk/pubs