The Kirkstyle Inn & Sportsmans Rest is a four-bedroom gastropub in the village of Slaggyford, on the borders of Cumbria and Northumberland, where the menu is built around game and the farms, rivers and coastline nearby. Head Chef Connor Wilson leans on classic techniques and minimal intervention, and seasonality and sustainability decide what reaches the table.
The building is thought to have started life as the village rectory before it was listed as a public house in the mid 1800s. All four en suite bedrooms are at the pub itself, and next door sits The Old Rectory, a separate six-bedroom holiday home booked through the same website. There’s wheelchair and pram access, disabled toilets and baby changing facilities, and dogs are welcome.
Wilson’s larder is largely local: wild game, pasture-bred sheep and cattle from neighbouring farms, and fish from the Northumberland coast and the Tyne. Pickling and fermentation help the kitchen cut waste, and everything from the sauces to the sourdough is made in house. The main menu can open with a trio of snacks - smoked eel croustade with fermented plum, beetroot and sheep cheese tart, and lamb kebab with rosemary - while lunch brings starters such as duck liver parfait with brioche and chutney, or smoked trout rillette with pickled cucumber.
Three formats cover most visits: the main menu and Sunday lunch, a fixed-price lunch menu from Thursday to Saturday, and a ten-course tasting menu for diners who want to see the kitchen’s full range, taking in lobster with Crown Prince squash, venison tartare, veal sweetbread, bass and duck.