The Kings Head

Description

There's something regal about arriving at the King’s Head pub with its hefty, iron-studded door and well-worn flagstone floors. Once inside you pass a medieval fireplace that wouldn’t be out of place in a palace. There’s also the biggest blackboard menu, a 10ft-tall description of award-winning local dishes that’s updated every day. Pub managers Dave & Louise stand behind the brass pumps on a black granite bar and offers a hearty welcome while polishing glasses. But it is a foaming pint of honest Yorkshire beer that really beckons: Despite the historic feel of this Yorkshire Dales retreat, the owner Ryan Whitcut has renovated everything since arriving Two years ago. Wooden furnishings have been sanded back to the grain and trimmed with a fresh lick of paint (Farrow & Ball No 82 Dix Blue, in case you wondered). To the rear, a thick-carpeted staircase winds past a library cupboard full of books and DVDs. Accommodation comprises half a dozen bedrooms spread over two floors, and each named after a monarch. There’s a grand suite to celebrate Charles I and a luxury pad named after King George III. The top floor, King Edward VII, is where I stayed. It’s a comfy, twin-room with lots of stylish touches and an ensuite complete with Duck Island toiletries. Tea-making facilities sit alongside a plate of shortbread biscuits from the pub chef. Look out the bedroom window and there is a view of Upper Wharfedale. The village sits where the River Wharfe and Kettlewell Beck meet and is a mix of limestone bridges and cottages. It was the setting for the 2003 film Calendar Girls, starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters. Good walks abound and I started with a two-mile meander along sheep trails to the neighboring village of Starbottom. For something more invigorating, there’s a five-mile hike west over a 1,500ft limestone ridge to Arncliffe, a village with its own claim to fame as the fictional Beckindale in early episodes of TV soap Emmerdale.