Derbyshire Peak District

In a break with procedure, we've booked our annual holiday for a week in the Peak District in December.. A completely new area for us.Don't know any Derbyshire beers, apart from a nodding acquaintance with Thornborough Hall. We will be based near The Yorkshire Bridge Inn, as my father in law knows the guvnor, and we have our eyes on the Three Stags Heads at Wardlow Mires. S*ddit, I still can't link back from the pubs pages!
Any suggestions? What we really like are isolated Moorland pubs like the Lion at Blakey Ridge in the N Y Moors, where you can hunker down for a wet afternoon in front of the fire with some decent ale.Nothing much to ask, really.

If you can get your hands on some Peak Ales, they are excellent and this pub Devonshire Arms is a good one to try them in, as it's the closest pub to the Peak Ales Brewery.

This is another good one to try Packhorse Inn and it has Thornbridge ales too.

Another one here The Bulls Head Inn in the picturesque village of Ashford in the Water, serves fantastic food and well-kept Robinsons ales.

Enjoy your trip!

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Originally Posted by Wittenden

... we have our eyes on the Three Stags Heads at Wardlow Mires. What we really like are isolated Moorland pubs like the Lion at Blakey Ridge in the N Y Moors, where you can hunker down for a wet afternoon in front of the fire with some decent ale.Nothing much to ask, really.

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I really like The Three Stags Heads, but beware: it has very limited opening. Perhaps you should phone to check before you set out.

Nearby there are two decent pubs: The Bull's Head at Foolow, which can be reached by a fairly short walk, and The Barrel Inn on top of the hill at Bretton. This might fit your description as it is an isolated moorland pub, but the ales are from the Greene King stable.

I've attached a couple of my pub crawl descriptions, one of which you may have seen in Camra's BEER magazine a couple of years ago. Hope you find these useful. There's one pub that appears on both crawls: The Red Lion Inn at Litton, and I would certainly recommend that for beer, food, service and surroundings.

Pub crawl links:

http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/crawl/vi...php?crawl=1015
http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/crawl/vi....php?crawl=646
http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/crawl/vi....php?crawl=651
http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/crawl/vi....php?crawl=652

Other pubs that might interest: The Snake Pass Inn (isolated, but in woodland rather than moorland), the Ladybower Inn (not far from where you're staying), The Strines Inn (another isolated pub - I've not been here for a few years so can't say what the beers are like) and The Old Nags Head Inn in Edale, (better in winter than in summer, but don't expect anything great in the beer department).

Enjoy your holiday.

I would recommend purchasing CAMRA's Peak District Pub Walks by Bob Steel.

Apart from some walking routes it also gives some useful info on many Peak District pubs.

Since you mentioned Derbyshire, I assume you're staying in Derbyshire rather than the northern-most parts of the National Park?

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Originally Posted by Andy Ven

I would recommend purchasing CAMRA's Peak District Pub Walks by Bob Steel.

Apart from some walking routes it also gives some useful info on many Peak District pubs.

Since you mentioned Derbyshire, I assume you're staying in Derbyshire rather than the northern-most parts of the National Park?

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Guide is about to be ordered: postal address is Derbyshire, but rumour has it that the area was historically West Riding. I have not worked out the northern boundary of the NP yet.
Thanks for the advice- a lot of good leads. Insightful reviews to follow in due course.

Thanks for the suggestions:some grand pubs visited, and interesting beers tried (once one navigated away from the Marstons and GKing haunts.)