The Coach & Horses

Away from the crowds but close to good walking in the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland, this traditional coaching inn offers richly decorated bedrooms and great food. With its creeper-covered facade and window boxes, the pub (with microbrewery) holds court in stone-cottage Bolton by Bowland in the picturesque Ribble valley. It has been carefully renovated with a striking copper-clad bar, flagstone floor and smart tartan carpets; its staff offer a ‘warm and friendly welcome’. Bedrooms have ‘beautifully rich and heavy furnishings’ in a traditional, country house style: lavish curtains, oversized headboards, elaborate mirrors. One has a copper bath on a dais, another a bath under the window. All have robes, coffee machines, hair straighteners and home-made biscuits, although, noted an inspector, disappointingly no fresh milk. The two dining areas, with hunting prints on the walls and candlesticks on the tables, offer a short menu of elevated pub classics, such as game pie with bacon date purée, skrei cod and chips, and aged sirloin with potato terrine. A ‘comprehensive selection’ of breakfast dishes are ‘cooked to perfection’.