This laid-back 17th-century coaching inn in low-key Bowland Bridge gets the balance just right between spit-and-sawdust boozer and posh gastropub. It is run with urbane charm by the business partners Andrew Black and Simon Rayner-Langmead, who bring a cheeky sophistication to snugs with exposed stone walls and wood-burning stoves, plus challenging art by Tracey Emin. The food also sashays deftly between styles, so tuck into Wainwright beer-battered fish and chips with mushy peas or stick out your pinky for sea trout with avruga caviar. The five rooms are as uplifting as the rural views and rooted in nature with comforting pastels and warm woolly textures.
Overall score 8/10
Main photo: The Hare & Hounds Inn (Steven Barber)
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Rooms and suites
Score 8/10
The five bedrooms are fuss-free and charming. Each has its own colour palette, with country floral fabrics in forest greens or blush pinks, antique furniture, comfy vintage beds with thick duvets, covetable Melin Tregwynt throws to keep out the Cumbrian cold, and spacious bathrooms, all with freestanding tubs where you can decompress after a decent yomp before a hearty dinner. There’s also a tray with the necessary for tea and coffee-making, statement bedside lamps, pretty botanical prints and oddball books — but otherwise they are clutter-free, quiet sanctuaries, perfectly judged for comfort rather than social media content.
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Food and drink
Score 7/10
The bar is ideal for a sarnie and mug of soup for lunch, but move through to one of the dinky dining rooms in the evening because the food merits sitting up straight. Dishes perform a culinary yin and yang: chicken livers on sourdough with red-wine syrup or vegetable soup with crusty roll, roasted aubergine with north African spices, or beef and ale pie. Black and/or Rayner-Langmead work the rooms, chatting happily to diners, bringing a side order of house-party style to proceedings. The New York cheesecake, using a recipe from Black’s grandma Leone, now has a cult following. Among their thoughtful initiatives are pop-up events that allow local chefs to take over the pub’s kitchen and showcase their talents to a wider audience.
What else is there?
Score n/a
Does a bench opposite the pub count as a mindfulness space? If not, the beer garden comes with a spectacular panorama of the fells.
Where is it?
Score 8/10
Bowland Bridge is a sleepy Lake District hamlet, three miles from Windermere. On your doorstep is Gummer’s How, which is one of the writer Simon Jenkins’s top-ten English views. The Pennines and Morecambe Bay are on show when you hit the top.
Susan d’Arcy was a guest of The Hare & Hounds Inn
Price B&B doubles from £110
Restaurant mains from £18
Family-friendly Y
Dog-friendly Y
Accessible N
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