The Devonshire, Skipton

Centrally located in the market square of this very pleasant village, it was very busy on our recent midweek lunchtime visit, despite being very inclement weather. No doubt this is because the village not only doubles up as Darrowby in ITV’s All Creatures Great and Small, but the pub too doubles up as the Drover’s Arms and there were a couple of coaches as well as dozens of cars in the car park just up the road. That said, anybody who is expecting the pub to be the same inside as the one featured on TV will be disappointed, clearly the interior filming is done elsewhere. It's tricky to pigeonhole the pub’s styling, perhaps traditional with a contemporary twist would be something near the mark. In the main part of the pub, the flooring is a mixture of old flagstones and wooden boards, whilst the walls are mostly painted in a maroon colour with khaki green wood panelling down below. There are still a few old black beams on the ceiling, a couple of stone fireplaces, one of which was dual sided and formed a partition with the snug. There was a beer barrel or two for vertical drinking, and a few generic prints on the walls such as wildlife scenes and old public notices. A longer room off to the left looked to be more geared up for eating, and this had burnt orange paintwork on the walls and tartan carpet on the floor. To the right was a smaller snug which included a large collection of photographs from the filming of the TV show, although unfortunately it was not really possible to look at these without standing right next to somebody’s table and staring over the top of them. Beers on tap were predominantly from Timothy Taylor with their Landlord Dark, Dark Mild, Boltmaker, Drovers Best, Landlord and Knowle Spring along with Tetley’s Original Cask. Ciders were well represented too with a good selection from Thatcher’s with their Apple & Blackcurrant, Burnt Orange, Cloudy Lemon and Gold which makes a very pleasant change from the usual dross around these parts. Overall, a pretty decent, if unremarkable pub, although it is perhaps a bit over touristy. Probably it would have a much more relaxed atmosphere in the evenings when the day trippers have departed.

It's a few years since I've been inside the Devonshire - also known as the Drovers Arms in Darrowby, in the TV series All Creatures Great and Small. It being only just gone 11am I wasn't going to be tempted by the range of five Timothy Taylor beers arrayed on the bar, and asked instead for an Americano. This is a multi-roomed pub, with diners to the left, drinkers near the bar, and a room full of ACGS memorabilia in a room to the right. I wasn't going to be tempted by that either.