As my girlfriend has just completed her university degree, we decided to take a few days away in order to relax and unwind. We decided to visit the Peak District — a part of the country we’ve always wanted to see. Of course, it would give me the chance to sample some more beers, too!
Castleton scenery
We opted to stay in Castleton, in the Hope Valley. The area is beautiful and the scenery is absolutely stunning. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and explored the village before heading off for a meal and a few drinks. On Friday morning, we decided to climb Mam Tor, the mountain overlooking Castleton and the Hope Valley. It was never going to be easy work considering the fact that I’ve only ever been at the summit of one mountain and I got to the top of that in a lift. This, coupled with the fact that we somehow managed to completely lose the intended tourist trail and end up scaling the bloody thing on our own, meant that this was going to be quite some walk. I had my very own Bear Grylls moment when I tried to cross a peat bog and got my leg sucked in whilst my girlfriend frantically yanked me back out.
Once we’d reached the top of Mam Tor, we came back down the other side into the village of Edale (after taking the wrong path back down the mountain and ending up about a mile and a half outside Edale when we reached the road again). Having already walked approximately eight miles by now, we stopped at The Rambler Inn for a bite to eat and some liquid refreshment. Having already visited each of the pubs in Castleton the previous day, I was overjoyed to reach The Rambler Inn and find that the beers were served without sparklers! Get in! Two pints later, we hopped on the train one stop further east to Hope. Here, we visited the Old Hall Inn. The only thing they served which even resembled beer was Wadworth 6X. Even this was in extremely poor condition and tasted like the lines hadn’t been cleaned for days. With their only other customer propping up the bar with empty Foster’s glasses, we assumed real ale was not exactly their forté. Our new lager-swilling friend told us in no uncertain terms that the Old Hall Inn was the best pub in the village and that the Cheshire Cheese Inn (not to be confused with the one in Castleton) was ‘not a proper pub’ and ‘not what it used to be’. Assuming that this meant it had real ales, friendly customers and bar staff who smiled, we made the (relatively!) short walk up Edale Road and found the Cheshire Cheese to be a delightful traditional pub serving good beer and offering a friendly service. The pub was also populated, which was in stark contrast to the Old Hall Inn. Perhaps the landlord of the Old Hall Inn should take note — there’s a recipe for success in every other pub in the Hope Valley and you’re wonderin’ why yours ain’t workin’.
The Rambler Inn in Edale - Fantastic pub
The pubs in Castleton itself were all of a high standard. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Inn (again, not to be confused with the one in Hope!) is a delightful period building with oak beams and a very traditional outfit. The beers are all superb and the bar staff are very friendly. On reaching the pub on Saturday night to discover Kelham Island Pale Rider on tap, I let out an involuntary ‘YES!’ complete with full-on air-punching. The barman, without skipping a beat, delighted in telling me it had just run out. Fortunately, he was joking.
On walking up Castle Street, I stopped dead in my tracks. We’d come all this way from south Bedfordshire to north Derbyshire and what had we found? A bloody Charlie Wells pub!! The George, nestled beautifully opposite the church, is apparently Charles Wells’ most northerly situated pub — by quite some way. The barman, Chris, who looks fantastically like Russell Brand (but thankfully is a nice bloke and nowhere near as irritating) told us that the landlord, Richard, had had to plea quite heavily with Charles Wells to sell a guest ale. Charles Wells, realising what a gem they had in The George, thankfully agreed. The guest beer that night was Sharp’s Honey Spice–a wheat bear infused with honey. It was certainly very interesting, and surprisingly nice. It was, however, served through a sparkler. Chris, the barman, told us that the landlord won’t actually allow the beer to be served without sparklers as the bar staff had attended training courses on how to serve beer with sparklers and he didn’t want the quality to be compromised. Fair enough, but the beauty of serving beer without a sparkler is that you really can’t go wrong! It’s pure, unadulterated liquid in a glass. No milky appearance, no froth, and with full flavour retention.
A few doors down from The George is The Castle. This is often busy as it’s right opposite the main car park in the village, so gets a lot of tourists stopping off for their first drink. The beer was serviceable (on the one day that they had a decent guest from a micro and not just the usual selection of Timmy Taylor Landlord, Wadworth 6X, Mansfield Original, Bass and Pedigree. The food, however, was abysmal. This is probably the weakest pub in Castleton by some way.
More scenery around Castleton
Opposite The Castle is The Bull’s Head. Although the beer range was limited to two regular premium ales by Robinsons (Double Hop and Unicorn Bitter), the condition was fine. The real gem, however, was the food. This was probably the best pub meal I’ve had in a long, long time. If you’re looking for a fantastic meal and don’t mind drinking Robinsons, head for The Bull’s Head. The best pint of the holiday was enjoyed at Ye Olde Nags Head, just across the road from The Bull’s Head — a superb pint of Saltaire Blonde. I say ‘pint’, but I did have more than one! The pub was undergoing a refit whilst we were there, but there was no interruption to service at all. The barmaid, although confused, did agree to remove the sparkler for my second pint so I could compare the two side by side. Having done so, I can categorically state that sparklers do greatly affect the state of real ale – for the worse. Many thanks to the staff at the Nags Head for letting me test this and for serving some fantastic beer.
Last but not quite least (although it’s a close one) is The Peaks Inn, a couple of doors up from the Cheshire Cheese. They claim to have ‘lavished’ £360,000 on the pub recently, but it’s hard to see how. The interior feels cold and unfriendly, the beer was relatively poor, and the food was pretty dire. My girlfriend ordered a medium steak, only to be greeted by two extremely thin steak slices, stuck together, and cooked to within an inch of their lives.
One thing that surprised me in the Peak District was the sheer number of people opting to drink real ale over lager. Purely through observation, I’d say it was probably 70-75%. It’s not just a local thing, either — the numbers didn’t seem to dwindle when singling out tourists. Most pubs do, unfortunately, use tight sparklers and swan neck pumps. The resulting beer is so frothy that the pints had to be pulled very slowly and were left to stand for a Guinness-style length of time to settle before they could be topped up.
All in all, it was a fantastic holiday and we’ll certainly be back in the area before long to do it all over again.
