YHA Borrowdale Bar, Keswick

Borrowdale youth hostel is on the Coast to Coast walk and the bar receives frequent visits from parched walkers during the summer months, and holiday makers from the nearby cottages at any time of year. When I stayed here recently, my usual preference for walking to the pub in the village was ruled out by floods, so it was good to have the option of a bar in the hostel's lounge. Two hand pumps were serving local Keswick Thirst Noel, and a Jennings Cumberland Ale that was in better condition than I can remember for this beer. There's an open fire and comfortable seating around a communal low table, with a handful of stools at the bar lending a slightly more pub-like look to the place. A growing collection of pump clips attests the wide variety of mostly local beers that have appeared on the bar here.