The Peacock at Barlow

With its own onsite Collyfobble Brewery, this modernised old coaching inn is set in a Peak District village with the appropriate former name of Barley. A reader felt proud as a peacock of his choice to stay there. ‘It is very good,’ he wrote. As you enter from the car park, admiring the sculptures, nothing about the place says ‘pub’, but descend the stairs and you find a popular local with a ‘glass-fronted extension and distant views to the east’. The air is relaxed, with dogs and children welcome. The bedrooms – four on the first floor, four in a barn conversion – are each named after a hop, and are high-spec, with a coffee machine, a minibar fridge, air conditioning and a swish bathroom with a bath or walk-in shower, or both, and touches of wit or kitsch. In the dining room, the food is good pub grub, with Derbyshire bangers and mash, fish pie, curries, a choice of vegan dishes. After a night of the Collyfobbles you will be wanting the full English with ‘golden bread’, or smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and tarragon, served until 11 am. ‘Service was friendly, business booming, with a full house of diners (and dogs).’ (RG)