Sunday 8 April 2012

Saturday - Elslack Grange and the Tempest Arms

This weekend Joe and I treated ourselves to a little weekend away in the country, staying at the Elslack Grange B&B, near Skipton.  Sally Thorpe welcomed us to a stunning house in the hamlet of Elslack, which has been in her family for generations and has just undergone a beautiful restoration.  The room was top notch with an enormous bed, lovely fittings and a fab bathroom complete with jacuzzi bath - just what we needed to relax and unwind.  She was a great host who, as well as making us a lovely breakfast before our departure, gave us lots of tips on where we could go for a walk in the area and made us feel thoroughly welcome and at home.  We would definitely recommend this as a place to stay if you are looking for some peace and to get away from everything.

Even better is that just down the road (literally - a 5-10 minute walk) is the Tempest Arms, which we were told by many people is the best place to eat in the Skipton area.  The Tempest Arms is a proper pub with comfy arm chairs, roaring fires and great, wholesome food served in huge portions.

Now, prepare to get the violins out here, but I've been a little ill over the last few days so probably wasn't the best company.  Joe is a great fiance though and humoured me, even when I was getting particularly tired at about 8 o'clock.  I am most definitely not rock and roll right now.

We went to the Tempest first for drinks and the papers (peppermint tea for me - see, seriously cool), which was fab.  It was buzzy but relaxed and a great place to sit back and enjoy the scenery.  We then returned later for dinner.  Ill or not, I think this is the kind of place you need to go having not eaten all day - the food was lovely but enormous!  For starters I had the rollmop herring and anchovy salad, which was a little nostalgic for me - my grandfather used to give my brother and I rollmop herrings and caviar when we were children - unusual tastes!  Even more nostalgic, Joe had the black pudding and spam fritters with a fried egg, which were surprisingly good. 

We probably should have stopped there, but we had ordered main courses of a fish pie for me and a seafood plank for Joe, which came with salmon, mackerel pate, cockles, crab, fried shrimps and a seafood salad.  The fish pie was really tasty - rich and creamy with a crispy potato lid, but Joe was a little less certain about his seafood plank - it was a little ill-conceived - although the component parts were nice, they didn't come together as a main dish really.  They did excellent chips though, and a wonderful sticky red cabbage side.

We will revisit both Elslack Grange and the Tempest Arms as I don't think I gave the latter a fair go - perhaps next time after a rather long stomp up a hill to whip up an appetite.


Rollmop herring and anchovy salad
Spam and black pudding fitters
The fish pie, which was bigger than my head (just to put it in scale)
The fish plank
Joe's impressive Elslack Grange breakfast
The guest book entry
Elslack Grange
The view from the Grange

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