The Horse and Farrier, Otley

The Horse and Farrier is a stone built pub that is situated quite close to the town centre and bridge over the River Wharf. Once inside there are two small rooms to the front either side of the entrance,the front left room had normal tables and chairs and a leather settee,the serving bar is in the middle area of the pub,the rear right of this area is raised with the seating being normal tables and chairs,the bar area had pew type seating and normal tables and chairs,the room is bare boarded. There was a good choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Oakells MPA which was quite a nice drink,the other beers i noted were Roosters Wild Mule,Briscoe Dalebottom Dark,Goose Eye Pommies Revenge,Ilkley Mary Jane and a beer from York brewery. I quite liked this pub,another Otley pub i could settle in for a session. Pub visited 8/11/2014

This pub started its life as the Three Horseshoes, back in the mid 1800's, taking its name from a nearby smithy. In the late 1980's/early 90's, the pub was for some strange reason renamed 'The Lix', before reverting to its original name until 2011 when Market Town Taverns took over and christened it 'The Horse and Farrier'. The pub today has quite a nice layout, spread across several distinctly different areas, but still has the feel of a newly opened venture which hasn't had the time to develop any character of its own. You enter through the tiled porch into a seating area which extends either side of the front door. There was some comfortable seating here, nice pictures on the walls and a lit stove to one side making it a cosy and warm space to enjoy a bit of people watching through the front windows. The bar is a little further into the pub, running down the left side in an open, bare boarded area with a raised, carpeted seating area directly opposite. Simple chair and bench seating is the order of the day here and although it is a bit basic, I quite enjoyed the elevated vantage point this space offered. There isn't much in the way of visual distraction in this pub, although there are a good number of whisky adverts adorning the walls here and beyond the servery a different theme emerges in the rear left part of the pub, which has been decorated with a decent collection of motorcycle pictures. This almost snug-like space offers a few further seating options and adjoins the corridor leading towards the rear garden which provides some benches similar to those available out the front of the pub. Stairs in the bar area lead up to a function room and the pub also has four rooms to let. The usual strong MTT ale range was evident here, with the row of handpulls offering Taylor Landlord, Okells MPA, Roosters Londinium, Saltaire Cascade Pale, Rudgate Jorvik Blonde, Moorhouse Blonde Witch, Black Sheep Bitter and Ilkley Mary Jane. I generally find it hard to pass up a Roosters beer, so I gave the Londinium a try and thought it was another fine beer from this excellent brewery. A strong keg line up including plenty of rarely seen options was detailed in full on a board behind the bar. A fellow PuG contributor told me that this is arguably the weakest Market Town Tavern and from my admittedly limited experience of the chain, I would be inclined to agree. That is however, not quite so damning as it might sound, as this chain sets very high standards and whilst I felt this place was a little bland and lacking in atmosphere, it remains a solid pub, with a good range of well kept ales and is a safe bet to include on a crawl around town.

cracking little pub that just gets better and better by far the best pint in otley cheers