A HATHERSAGE HOP

October 2023. Hathersage. Peak District.

If there’s one thing that characterises the frustration of GBG ticking, it’s realising that the new Guide entry in a town you recently visited is literally the only pub you didn’t visit, despite scouring What Pub for pre-emptives.

And more often than not that future GBG tick will have been hiding in plain sight, like the Pickled Plum in Sedgefield or the Snooker Club in New Mills or any of the 87 (est) new Spoons.

And so it was, that a mere five months after “doing” Hathersage with the in-laws I was back in one of the Peak’s smartest town, thankfully a regular if crowded hop out from Sheff.

Love the topiary, mate.

I’d even walked out to the Scotsmans Pack (debate that lack of apostrophe among yourselves) back in May while the in-laws ate artisan ices. I could have popped in then but decided I’d already visited.

Which I hadn’t. Perhaps I was confused by Bing Maps marking it as “Marstons”, which to be fair it definitely is.

There you go. Not only does GBG24 give us plain one beer pubs, it also gives up plain upmarket gentlefolk hotels selling Marston’s beers, without a Locale in sight.

Yes, I was called “Sir” (ugh), but I’ll live with that when the Pedigree is this cool and rich and, indeed, chewy (NBSS 3.5). Was it sulphurous or sour ? I’m not a beer man.

I chose the only table without cutlery on it, and then had to endure a procession of non-dining couples eyeing it jealously as it was slightly too big for one.

Pauline will have spotted that HUGE cake on the bar. Walkers need cake after their climb in proper boots.

The customers are all in their ’60s,

the music is from the 60s,

and it takes the woolly hats 60 seconds at the bar to decide what they want. The world aligns.

At least they didn’t form a queue.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

17 thoughts on “A HATHERSAGE HOP”

  1. ā€œThe customers are all in their ā€™60sā€ as was I there with three nights staying in the village during April 2018.
    Never mind ā€œdebate that lack of apostrophe among yourselvesā€ I was agonising on whether it should be the Scottishmanā€™s Pack or the Scotchmanā€™s Pack.
    The trains for Sheffield were running well though.

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      2. A few years back I used to spend quite a bit of time staying in Hathersage, and in those days never found it that good for pubs. Oddly, I can’t remember trying the SP.

        Whatever, on the subject of topiary

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      3. I’m not sure which if any of the Peak District villages/towns are good for pubs. The George in Youlgreave is all you need obviously. Belper is great, but hardly Peak.

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      4. *What’s odd is that it’s possible that I didn’t try the SP, not that I can’t remember if I actually did.

        We used to stay either at Carr Head Farm, then a B&B, or at Highlow Hall, where things used to go bump or creak in the night, and disembodied spirits visible only by their phosphorescent bloomers could be seed striding across the landing.

        I used to have the little room over the entrance porch.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlow_Hall

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      2. Etu,
        Yes, I’ve had fourteen nights at Ilam YH from 1983 to 2014 when kept by Edgar and Margaret Smith.
        A ‘dry’ village but not too far from the Izaac Walton Hotel for some DBA.

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  4. Was in Hathersage this very day, and chance took me to the Scotmans Pack (having tossed a notional three-sided coin). Thought the Hobgoblin Ruby a solid 3.5.

    However, most surprising thing in the village: an open-air public swimming pool, heated, and open throughout the year. Remarkable.

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