Tan Hill Inn

Yorkshire Dales National Park


Built to cater for 19th-century miners, Tan Hill's claim to fame is that it's Britain’s highest pub, at an elevation of 328m (1732ft). It perches in the middle of nowhere about 11 miles northwest of Reeth. At times the howling wind can make it feel a bit wild up here, but inside it's unexpectedly comfortable and welcoming, with an ancient fireplace in the atmospheric, stone-flagged public bar and leather sofas in the lounge.

An important watering hole half way along the Pennine Way, the inn offers tea and coffee for weary walkers in the mornings, plus real ale on tap, a decent pub grub menu (mains £7 to £17) and live music in the evenings. Its recently refurbished B&B accommodation (£100 a double or £90 twin) mainly caters for hikers and rooms have fabulous views of the bleak surrounds. There's also a bunkhouse (£30 per person) and basic, wild and windy camping (£5 per person).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Yorkshire Dales National Park attractions

1. Hardraw Force

9.63 MILES

About 1.5 miles north of Hawes is 30m-high Hardraw Force, the highest unbroken waterfall in England, but by international standards not that impressive …

2. Sheepdog Demonstrations

10.35 MILES

On Thursdays from May to October, a local farmer gives demonstrations of working sheepdogs, held in a field 800m north of Hawes on the minor road towards…

3. Dales Countryside Museum

10.6 MILES

Sharing a building with the national park centre, the Dales Countryside Museum is a beautifully presented social history of the area that explains the…

4. Wensleydale Creamery

10.81 MILES

Wensleydale Creamery is devoted to the production of a crumbly white cheese that's the favourite of animation characters Wallace and Gromit. You can visit…

5. Barnard Castle

11.14 MILES

Built on a cliff above the River Tees by Guy de Bailleul and rebuilt around 1150, Barnard Castle was partly dismantled some four centuries later, but its…

6. Bowes Museum

11.41 MILES

A monumental chateau half a mile east of the centre contains the lavishly furnished Bowes Museum. Funded by 19th-century industrialist John Bowes, and…

7. Forbidden Corner

16.92 MILES

There can surely be no other place like this in the world: a modern walled garden furnished with Victorian-style follies, some veering into gothic horror,…

8. Raby Castle

17.11 MILES

Sprawling Raby Castle was a stronghold of the Catholic Neville family until it engaged in ill-judged plotting (the 'Rising of the North') against the…