Travellers Rest, Penrith

My latest visit found the pub pretty quiet, but it was a wet and blustery March day with not many people about. There was only the one hand pump on, Hesket Newmarket Helvellyn Gold being the only survivor from the three-beer line up of nearly six years ago. Rhinestone Cowboy was blasting out through the loudspeakers as I arrived in the small and empty public bar. The landlady gave me a warm welcome and suggested that I might like the fire in the lounge. I asked whether Glenn Campbell was going to be in there too - she said it's not very likely because he's dead isn't he? I went through anyway, and it was warmer, and quite pleasant with the wood panelling on the walls and the wall-mounted bench seating with smart upholstery.

Appropriately named, sited as it is at the top of the steepest section of Greenside Road, this is the only proper pub in Glenridding, the others being hotel bars. There's a very small public bar on the left, and a slightly bigger lounge to the right. To these have been added a covered and heated outside area - not so much a conservatory, more a space converted from a store for bins and empty barrels - plus a patio (also heated) and a couple of benches on the edge of the car park (take your chances). The popularity of the place in summer months can be gauged by the presence of notices imploring customers not to impinge on the privacy of neighbours by sitting on their doorsteps and leaving glasses on their window sills. Three beers were available at the time of my visit: the ubiquitous Sharps Doom Bar and the local Hesket Newmarket pair Helvellyn Gold and Peak Bagger. The latter was a very pale 4.4% beer with the taste of a rather weak lager shandy. It's not often I find myself wishing I'd gone for the Doom Bar - in fact I can't remember the last time - but this was one of those occasions.