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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
on the Pub Forum
Image posted by Tris C
Submitted on Monday, 19th August 2024
With picture contributions to 2352 other pubs
View all this pub's pictures (2 more images)
Detail Pages
The Bull's Head, Hereford
Craswall
Postal town: Hereford
HR2 0PN
Served areas
Reviews of The Bull's Head (Average Rating: 6 of 10) see review guidelines
Tris C left this review about The Bull's Head
...and now No. 33 in the Estrella Top 50 Gastropubs, 2025.
On 30th January 2025
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2209 recommendations about 2166 pubs]
Tris C left this review about The Bull's Head
In the shadow of the Black Mountains, you gird your loins and penetrate deep into Herefordshire’s heart of darkness, in search of this un-signposted, exceptionally remote pub. With single-track, winding precipitous lanes, some overgrown, some hairpin, many strewn with slippery wet leaves in winter, with only a prayer that with hardly any passing places you won’t encounter an oncoming tractor; you’re never far from the fear of having to reverse back around blind corners. For miles. But on arrival, what a treat: a beautiful, whitewashed 18th century farmhouse conversion, one of the last unspoilt drovers’ inns in England, which until 1998 had been in the same family’s hands for 125 years, closed for six years prior to reopening in 2021. And also on CAMRA’s list of heritage pubs, where a few photos can be seen (and a couple from me), the pub garnering *.
With traditional furniture, no electronics and just a few simple knickknacks, this is a small multi-roomed affair on a steep slope, which explains the interior’s sharp change in steps; a place for the wheelchair user this isn’t. With a flagstone floor, there’s much bare stone, an abundance of roughhewn exposed beams and simple hole-in-the-wall servery, behind which was a tap wall dispensing SIPA, Gasping Goose, Lager, Bull’s Head Table Beer (£3.00 a half and nice, served by a friendly barman); I failed to spot Butty Bach and another cask behind the bar on stillage. Customers were mixed, with almost all eating at the time of my 2.00pm Friday visit, probably explained by the fact this remote and impecunious location is a clear indication that this must obviously be on Estrella’s list of 50 BEST UK GASTROPUBS 2021 (a Michelin 2022 citation too, natch); I should have spotted something was afoot when I had to negotiate the Range Rovers and BMWs in the smart car park.
Food aside, I thought this was a very charming pub, my brief visit made all the more rewarding for having braved the wing on a prayer white-knuckle drive to get here, though I had to be offered help from a lovely barmaid to reverse out of the car park.
On 19th August 2024
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2209 recommendations about 2166 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Bull's Head
The Bull's Head is an old drovers inn situated in the middle of nowhere down some rather narrow and potholed country lanes where horses appear more frequently than cars. We first tried visiting here about 15 years ago, and on what was a dark November night and relying only on hard copy maps, had failed to locate the pub. We later ascertained that it had been temporarily closed. So there may not have been a sign or anything that could have indicated that it was a pub.
Our long-awaited return in 2023 was in all honesty a bit of a letdown. We found it open this time and whilst the interior is still very traditional, it is now much more of a haute cuisine restaurant-type place that serves a few beers than a public house.
The small bar had plenty of young and enthusiastic bar staff. Butty Bach was the only cask ale. There were instead a few keg options served from a modern bar back. The rom itself was fairly untouched and looked quite splendid. But with all of the tables reserved and some kind of ambient background music playing, the atmosphere was destroyed.
A dining area could be reached by some impossibly steep steps from the bar. But we didn't attempt to venture there, as you needed to have reserved weeks in advance to have secured a table in there and I suspect that any attempts to view the restaurant would have been regarded with contempt.
We did however get a good view of the garden outside, which was most popular with drinkers. Toilets are also outside. Although, these could be the poshest outside toilets I've ever been in.
Since the pictures and the last review from 2013, this pub has very much morphed into a new creature. I'm pleased to say that they don't appear to have tampered much with the building itself, but the atmosphere is very much that of a high-end restaurant than a traditional drovers inn.
On 3rd May 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3040 recommendations about 3038 pubs]
View more reviews of The Bull's Head (4)
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- Official site of The Bull's Head - www.wildbynaturellp.com
- Facebook page of The Bull's Head - www.facebook.com
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The Bull's Head - whatpub.com
- Historic Pub Interiors - pubheritage.camra.org.uk
Hereford, 17.76 miles, 5 hr 42 min walk (show)
Ebbw Vale Town, 24.83 miles, 7 hr 59 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : Yes - Cabins. - last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- CAMRA Discount : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Car Park : Yes last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Child Friendly : Yes - Baby changing. - last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Darts : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Dog Friendly : Yes - Not in the restaurant. - last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Function Room : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Jukebox : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Karaoke : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Live Music : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Micropub : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Pinball : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Pool Table : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Quiz Night : No last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Real Cider : Yes last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- Wheelchair Access : No - Highly inadvisable. - last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
- WiFi : Yes last updated 19 August 2024 by Tris C
