Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Robin Hood’s Bay

  • Robin Hood’s Bay – Laurel Inn

    Our third and final pub on the Friday night before the Smuggler’s Trod, the Laurel Inn.

    This little snug room is located at the entrance to the pub, with the bar area of the pub being up a few stairs. I liked this quirky room, it almost felt like a museum display, again all rather atmospheric.

    There were lots of random artefacts decorating the interior of the pub, which was busy and there was an informal feel to the whole proceedings. The beamed ceiling and the rustic nature of the walls made me wonder whether the layout of this pub had changed much over the last century.

    There were three ales on, and I’d already discovered that Leeds Pale isn’t well reviewed and I’ve had more than enough Adnams in the past. So, it was back to Old Peculier for me, although I had hoped for a more innovative selection of beers to choose from. The beer was fine, at the appropriate temperature and was well-kept, so that was all good. The service was also efficient and polite, with no wait to be served.

    The three pubs we visited all did feel like they were a bit samey in terms of the beer selection, and there’s an article in Northern Echo from 2016 which stated they were all ordered to stop serving alcohol when the council discovered that the landlord in charge of them all had died. I have no idea whether they are still commonly managed, but it might explain the paucity of choice with the beers.

  • Robin Hood’s Bay – Ye Dolphin

    I quite liked this pub as it had some charm to it and a traditional feel.

    From the Whitby Gazette in 1888 and I imagine that the billiards table had been in the upper room. The lower room is what today houses the pub’s main bar and it was full when we visited.

    I had to quickly check RateBeer as I hadn’t heard of Leeds Pale or Robinson’s Dizzy Blonde, but the ratings were poor and they’re not styles of beer that I usually go for in any event. As a side issue, I’m surprised Robinson’s think they’re being humorous with the name of their beer and it was perhaps inevitable that CAMRA have banned it from the Great British Beer Festival. Robinsons claim that the name refers to the artwork on the front nose cone of aircraft, but they seem to have conveniently forgotten that this isn’t the imagery they’ve had on the pump clips for some time.

    Anyway, Theakston’s Old Peculier is about the best beer that the brewery produce in my rather humble opinion and it’s a reliable option. The beer here was well kept and at the appropriate temperature, with the atmosphere in the pub being welcoming. It must be difficult to give a feeling of a local community pub in such a tourist location, but they seemed to be managing perfectly well.

  • Robin Hood’s Bay – Walk Between Pubs

    Just photos…..

  • Robin Hood’s Bay – Bay Hotel

    The impressive looking Bay Hotel, which dominates the lower part of the town and, perhaps more importantly, is listed in the Good Beer Guide. It’s the only pub in the town which has that honour and we visited the upper bar. Incidentally, the pub has a history of the building on its web-site, something I always appreciate.

    The bar area, with the service being reasonably efficient and always polite. It was also clean and well presented, although a little too hot for my liking. They had put a fan behind the bar to keep the staff cool, which was a good idea, but there didn’t seem to be any provision for customers.

    The beer selection was either Theakston Best Bitter or Theakston Lightfoot, and I went with the former. It was well kept and at the appropriate temperature, but not really to my taste as I struggled to find much depth of flavour in it, although I suppose it would an entirely acceptable session ale.

    The specials board.

    The colour of the fish meant to me that they’d either used a dark ale to make the beer batter or it was overcooked. I would have been surprised at the former as they didn’t have any dark beer, although they could have used Guinness. Anyway, it was the latter, it was overcooked.

    The fish itself was fine and the chips were adequate (I liked the hand cut and home made feel to them, but they were rather greasy), with everything being hot and it was also served promptly. The mushy peas were bloody awful, I have no idea what they’d done with them as there was a layer of water at the base and the taste was off. I might have asked if there was a check back, but there wasn’t, so I didn’t.

    The location is still used as a hotel, and I imagine it’s a really interesting place to stay. There are some decent views of the harbour from the pub windows, and I think also from at least some of the hotel rooms. The prices here for food and drink were towards the higher end of the scale, but it’s a tourist destination and nothing was unreasonable.

  • Robin Hood’s Bay – Walk Down to Bay

    On the Friday night we had a little walk down into the lower part of Robin Hood’s Bay, as we were staying in the upper part. It was a reminder of the 2018 Smuggler’s Trod walk, which goes through the town, and a foreboding sight for the 2019 Smuggler’s Trod walk.

    The reason for this post is just to show the photos I took of the bay. Although the town itself was quite busy, it felt quiet and calm down near to the beach. From here we felt we needed to test a few of the town’s pubs….