The Old Nags Head Inn, Hope Valley

Classic Hikers pub - marking the start of the Pennine Way and being in perfect walking country. Very quiet at Lunch on a Friday but it fills up as the afternoon goes on. Classic pub of its type but needed a fire. The Hikers Bar was cold and the Black Sheep freezing!

Last time I called in here must have been 25 years ago. The it was a typical rural pub of the sort you find in many upland areas. Now it feels very corporate and unwelcoming. 1PM on a Sunday lunch and just the Hiker's Bar open, hardly anyone about, just a few walkers sitting in the sunshine round the back who had to carry their drinks round as the rear door to the lounge was locked. I expected it to be mobbed out given that the village car park was solid. Just McMullen's AK on the bar, the other clips reversed. A huge disappointment.

Official site of The Old Nags Head Inn - www.the-old-nags-head.co.uk

Official site of The Old Nags Head Inn - www.the-old-nags-head.co.uk

This is a delightful old building in the lovely valley and village of Edale. Famously the start of the Pennine Way, though I don't know if anyone has had a pint here before climbing Jacob's Ladder to cross the Kinder Plateau. Apparently built in 1577, a date celebrated in two of the house beers: 1577 itself, formerly 5.5% but now 5.1%, and 1577 Black, at 3.5% not so much a mild as a weak stout. No brewery name is appended to these brews, nor to the others on offer, Grays Best and Celtic Gold, but as the latter are rebadged beers from Coach House of Warrington, it seems likely that the 1577 brews are too. This pub and the Rambler Inn just down the road are the only places I have seen these beers. The only remarkable thing about these ales is their price - well over £3 a pint. The big Hikers Bar at the front has some large tables to the left, and a couple of small ones in the windows, and there's a doorway through to a drinking corridor and a raised games area (wide screen TV and bar billiards). To the right is a Locals Bar - though locals are rarely seen: can't afford the prices, probably - which is a lovely room with a stone fireplace, a small servery and ancient framed invoices on the walls. Through another door is an extension dining room for busy periods, and there is outdoor seating too. It's such a pity that both pubs in Edale are such a rip off. If the Nags had a proper range of real ales and the pricing policy of, say, the Cheshire Cheese in Hope, it would be one of the top pubs in the area. Instead they serve poor quality beers at hugely inflated prices, served by temporary staff who couldn't care less. The result: mediocrity.

The Old Nags Head is a walkers pub at the start of the pennine way walk,it is a large rambling pub and was very busy on my visit there were four real ales these were Grays Bitter it didnt taste of much,Nags Black,Nags Best 1577and Hobgoblin.I dont know who brews the Grays and Nags beers this is the better of the two pubs in Edale.

This pub is a real haven for walkers and anyone enjoying the marvelous Peak District. It is also the official start of the Pennine Way, running 250 miles north to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders. Serves good food in a cosy atmosphere. I love it.