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The Black Bull, Coniston
Coniston
LA21 8HL
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Black Bull
The Black Bull is home of the Coniston Brewery (at the rear) and stocks a good range of their beers - Bluebird Bitter, Premium XB Bluebird Bitter, Old Man Ale, Special Oatmeal Stout, No. 9 Barley Wine, Infinity IPA, Oliver's Light Ale & Golden Bitter. They also had Weston's Old Rosie cider.
I tried the stout and finished on the No. 9 Barley Wine, which at 8.5% and £4.20 for a half was quite eyewatering, but easy to drink.
The pub has a reasonable size seating area as you enter, then narrows as you go past the bar, before widening out again with more seating beyond an entrance to a kitchen. There is also a small courtyard area to the side of the pub that was popular with smokers, who were braving Storm Arwen.
Bar staff and locals were being kept amused by a nutter drinking double brandies who was initially sat at the bar, before moving onto a table next to me. He was quite happy chatting away to anybody who would listen and continuing his chats with himself when everybody had lost interest.
Remarkably with most of the village without power, the Black Bull somehow still managed to be connected. I'm not sure how long that lasted though as shortly after I'd left, a huge gust of wind arrived and plunged everything into darkness. However, my visit here was enjoyable and capped off an entertaining night in appalling weather quite nicely.
On 27th November 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3040 recommendations about 3038 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Ian Mapp left this review about The Black Bull
First time back in nearly 10 years.
Beer - as you would expect from a brewery - is first class.
The rooms have been spruced up to a very high standard too.
Everything was great about our Visit, Blogged at http://bit.ly/2qTcrAT
On 23rd May 2017
- rating: 10
[User has posted 277 recommendations about 276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about The Black Bull
Occupying a prominent position on Coniston’s main street is The Black Bull, a white washed traditional old looking building. An old pub sign on a wall tells us that it is a “16th Century Historic Coaching Inn. Serving fine food and real ales brewed on the premises”. The Black Bull is of course the home of Coniston Brewery and a large tarpaulin banner draped across one of the front walls reminds us that Coniston Brewery’s Bluebird Bitter was Champion Beer of Britain in 1998 and is on sale here.
It’s an unusual building in what I would describe as a double L shape with a number of different entrances. Half way down the main room is a long attractive shiny mahogany bar counter. On the wall opposite ( and close by, because it’s quite narrow here ), are a fine collection of CAMRA award certificates and a tube map style poster entitled Pub Stops of the Lake District. Hops adorn the wall high up here. At both ends of the bar, the interior widens out. It’s a traditional comfortable interior with the usual low black beams, red velour padded seating and bar stools. Horse brasses and decorative plates feature, as do a number of brewery / beer related posters. Perhaps inevitably, one area features a few old black and white framed photos of Donald Campbell and his craft. An attractive mahogany mantelpiece and shelving with the date 1712 and surrounding an old fireplace also catches the eye, although there’s now a woodburner here.
A further area at the back very much resembles a converted barn with a high vaulted ceiling and exposed stonework and an emphasis on diners. Set into the wall here, through a glass viewing panel is a large piece of stone, unnamed, but which I later learnt to be the Big Toe of the Old Man of Coniston ( which is not a local OAP, but a well known mountain overlooking the town attracting walkers and climbers with considerably more energy than me ).
There’s a separate residents lounge and two outside drinking areas at the front where you can sit and watch the passing traffic. 15 rooms are available for overnight stays, but this is more a pub with rooms than a hotel with a bar.
The interior is pleasingly free of music and electronic games machines and, whilst there’s salt and pepper pots on each table, there isn’t the food emphasis to the extent that you might expect. For instance, large leatherbound menus are kept on a smallish table at the end of the bar, rather than on each table, and are not as immediately noticeable as you might expect.
The Black Bull is the home of Coniston Brewery ( hidden away around the back of the building ) and, on the bar counter, a prominently displayed colourful leaflet details the beers with full tasting notes and a list of awards and accolades won to date.
I was fortunate enough to get to sample most of the Bluebird beers during my stay in the village. Whilst both the Bluebird Bitter and the XB Premium Bitter were pleasant, tasty pints, the Special Oatmeal Stout ( 4.5% ABV - £ 3.80p ) stole the show as far as I was concerned. A strong IPA ( Infinity IPA – 6% ) was also pretty good. Interestingly, on only one of 3 visits was there a non – Coniston real ale on – a stout from Barngates ( Drunken Duck ) when the aforementioned Oatmeal Stout had run out.
This visit was also memorable for my first sighting of a CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2015 sticker- proudly and prominently displayed along with those of previous years. A large poster for the 2011 edition reflects the fact that The Black Bull features on the front cover.
Various bottle presentation packs, branded baseball caps, T shirts etc are on sale should you feel the need to purchase a memento of your visit.
For various reasons, I didn’t get to visit all the Lake District pubs that were on my shortlist to try to do, but, of the ones, I did get to do, this was probably the pick of the bunch.
On 20th October 2014
- rating: 8
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Black Bull
This is the home of Coniston Brewery, and the 11 hand pumps proudly serve all of their beers, including a cask lager. The long bar (it has to be, to accommodate all those hand pumps) recedes into the rear of the pub, making the area around it slightly awkward, especially when it's busy.
The wooden fire-surround is dated 1712 and there are many pictures on the walls of Donald Campbell's attempt at the world speed record on water that ended fatally for him in 1967.
A big plus: no music; a minus: the strong smell of fried food noticed on entering. Despite the pub's status as a brewery tap, I feel it is aiming more at the tourist trade than beer aficionados.
On 17th January 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 4273 recommendations about 3935 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about The Black Bull
Brewery tap for the adjacent Coniston Brewery with the full range of their ales, unsurprisingly in great condition. It has a long bar in an L-shaped room, with numerous tables for the heavy food trade, including some outside. Small hotel part and restaurant in wing to side. Good pub atmosphere; clearly the centre of the village. Recommended.
On 27th August 2011
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3641 recommendations about 3576 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Andy Ven left this review about The Black Bull
I've never been here so I can't review (yet) but this is a just comment to highlight that a photo of this pub takes pride of place on the front cover of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2011
On 13th October 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 244 recommendations about 240 pubs]