Winter Pubs with Rooms in the Yorkshire Dales: Where to Stay and Book
2 The Square, Grassington: Honest Verdict for Solo Young Travellers
A practical guide to cosy Dales inns with real fires, honest food and a bed for the night, from Grassington to Hawes.
Lower Wharfedale: Grassington and Burnsall
Grassington's cobbled square, used as Darrowby in All Creatures Great and Small, has three inns within 200 metres of each other. The Foresters Arms on Main Street is the liveliest, with Timothy Taylor's Landlord on handpull and rooms from around £110 midweek in January, rising towards £150 on summer weekends. The Devonshire Grassington, a former coaching inn, runs bigger, smarter rooms from roughly £130 and a restaurant that fills on Saturday nights — book a table when you book the bed. My pick for a first Dales winter trip is the Foresters: it's central, the bar has genuine local trade, and you can walk to Linton Falls in 15 minutes.
Seven miles down the B6160, Burnsall sits in a bend of the Wharfe under a 16th-century bridge. The Red Lion is the postcard: flag floors, a riverside lawn and rooms around £120–£160. In winter the lawn is moot, but the fireside seats and the walk up to Burnsall Fell (about 45 minutes to the summit) earn their keep. Skip the village if you want evening variety — there's one pub and that's the point. Book direct, because the Red Lion's winter weekend availability in February half-term goes first.
Upper Wharfedale and Littondale: Kettlewell and Arncliffe
Kettlewell, 12 miles north of Skipton on the B6160, is the walking hub of upper Wharfedale. The Racehorses Hotel on Middle Lane does solid rooms from about £95, a bar full of Dales Way walkers and a dining room that serves until 8.30pm — useful when you've been on Great Whernside all afternoon. The Blue Bell Inn, a few doors away, is the village local: no rooms, but the best pint in the village and homemade pies at lunchtime. Base yourself at the Racehorses and eat at the Blue Bell at least once.
Littondale is quieter and better for it. Arncliffe's Falcon Inn, a 16th-century pub above the River Skirfare, has low beams, a proper fire and rooms from around £100. It's 8 miles up a dead-end road from Kettlewell, so a car is essential; from Skipton station it's a 40-minute drive. Winter here means total dark by 4.30pm, which is exactly why you come. The Falcon's food is straightforward — steak and ale pie, fish and chips — and there's nowhere else to go, so book dinner with the room.
Wensleydale and Swaledale: Hawes, Askrigg and Reeth
Hawes, at the head of Wensleydale, is the largest town in the upper Dales and the best winter base for drivers: the A684 stays open when the minor roads don't. The Crown Hotel on the main street has rooms from roughly £100 and a bar that serves Wensleydale Brewery ales. The White Hart, opposite, is similar money with a slightly smarter dining room. From Hawes, Hardraw Force — England's highest single-drop waterfall — is a 20-minute walk, and the Wensleydale Creamery is five minutes' drive. January and February are the quietest months; expect some cafés shut midweek.
Askrigg, 5 miles east, is All Creatures' fictional Darrowby and the King's Arms still pours a decent pint under the same low ceilings. Reeth, in Swaledale, is 25 minutes' drive north-east of Hawes over the moor; the Black Bull there has rooms from around £105 and sits on the village green where the Grinton Smelt Mill walk starts. If you want one booking that covers everything — walk, pub, bed, breakfast — take the Black Bull or the Crown. Avoid mid-November to early December: some kitchens close for staff holidays and the villages feel half-shut.
Booking practicalities and what to skip
Trains run to Skipton from Leeds in about 45 minutes and to Northallerton from York in 25, but neither station puts you near a Dales pub, so plan on a car or a pre-booked taxi — Skipton taxis to Kettlewell cost roughly £30–£40 and need ordering a day ahead. Winter rates drop 20–30% outside the Christmas and February half-term weeks; Sunday to Thursday is cheapest. Book direct by phone where possible, because small inns release rooms that don't always appear on agency sites, and ask specifically about winter opening for the kitchen.
Skip the big chain hotels on the A1 corridor if you want the Dales proper — they're 40 minutes from the first fell. Skip any pub that won't confirm a dinner service when you call. And skip trying to string together three villages in one night; the roads over Fleet Moss and Buttertubs close in snow, and you'll spend the evening driving. One valley, two nights, one inn is the better winter plan.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Grassington, answered with this month’s numbers.
Late January and early February are quietest, with the lowest room rates and open fires at their best. Avoid the Christmas fortnight and February half-term if you want easy tables and parking. Snow on the tops is possible from November to March.
Yes for almost all of them. Skipton and Northallerton have rail links, but the villages — Kettlewell, Arncliffe, Hawes, Reeth — are 20 to 40 minutes by road from a station. Pre-book taxis; winter availability is limited.
Expect £95 to £160 per night for a double with breakfast, depending on the inn and the week. Midweek in January is the cheapest window; summer weekends can add £40 or more to the same room.
