The Barrel With A View

Historic charm meets rural tranquillity at the Barrel Inn at Bretton, the highest pub in the Peak District

The Barrel Inn at Bretton is a perfect mid-walk stop on a hike from Eyam to Foolow, providing as it does great food and drink and a brilliant outlook. It's at least 300 years old and sits at a point where a couple of old pack horse trade routes meet. The location, on a long ridge between Great Hucklow and the "plague village" of Eyam, provides beautiful views in all directions. To the south you look out over a broad valley with the sweet village of Foolow set among fields bisected by drystone walls.

From the Barrel Inn towards Foolow Village

In the other direction is the deep Bretton Clough, beyond which you can see the Dark Peak summits of Win Hill, the Great Ridge and Mam Tor, and the plateaus of Kinder Scout, Bleaklow, and Stanage Edge.

Stanage Edge with Hathersage in the foreground, from Bretton

Our hike started in Eyam village, famous for the sacrifices made by the townsfolk in the 17th century while the Black Death pandemic was widespread in England. Today it's a picturesque collection of gritstone cottages many of which have signs telling you how many of the inhabitants died during when the village was quarantined. There's good places to eat and drink and in August they hold their well dressing:

Well dressing in Eyam village

There's a lovely climb through woods onto Eyam Moor with much heather, bracken and bilberry bushes at this time, then down to the Bretton Brook and up to the tiny hamlet of Abney, circling round the clough on good paths to Great Huckow where you can watch gliders taking off and landing, then along the ridge to the Barrel Inn and down to Foolow village for a final stretch through fields back to Eyam.

This walk is a perfect introduction to the Peak District and we can provide the route to anyone staying at Catherine Cottage.