11 March 2026

Beer and sandwiches: At the Black Bull Inn in Sedbergh

This column is our weekly pub review, written by pintsmen, women and children across the nation. Suggestions to letters@newstatesman.co.uk

By New Statesman

Illustration by Marta Signori

You may be surprised to learn that Cumbria was invaded by the Axis powers in 1941. But how else would you explain the presence of a Japanese-German fusion pub at the base of the Howgills? At the Black Bull Inn you can chew on a kombucha oyster mushroom or kimchi lamb while gazing out on to the Yorkshire Dales National Park – all that Lebensraum!

Trad life

The Black Bull Inn offers traditional English pub food too. The Allied forces fight back with the turbo-trad roast: Yorkshire puddings as big as your head, roast beef from non-local-but-still-delicious Hereford cows, roast potatoes, gravy, yadda yadda. By my calculations, it’s the best example of the form you can eat in this England.

Pails of ale

The Black Bull (as it’s known to locals) – a grand 17th-century coaching inn – dominates Sedbergh’s high street. The enterprising owners turned the stables at the back of the pub into a beer garden, which, on a rare cheerful day in that rainiest of counties, is a suitable spot for several glasses of white wine. But the Yorkshire Dales favourite, Black Sheep Ale, is on tap, and when it runs out, locals sigh and order an Asahi instead. Continuing the Japanese theme, the wine list also features ten sake options.

Resting place

Situated among the Howgill Fells, Sedbergh is a lesser-known Cumbrian walking hub, the younger cousin to the Lake District’s Keswick or Kendal. Tired hikers and their dogs can stay at the Black Bull, and imagine an England where D-Day went rather differently.

The Black Bull Inn, Sedbergh, Cumbria