Wild with flavour

If you can find a better way to end a walk at, then well done to you (and please tell us where it is). It would have to be something special to beat the warm, unpretentious surroundings of The Golden Lion on the western edge of the North York Moors near Osmotherly. The menu is a mix of British pub standards and creative flair from Italy and France, all served without fuss in a proper old pub - all wooden beams and flagstones. The beer is all local and perfectly kept, and there's a healthy gin collection and a positively Scottish range of whiskies.

It doesn't have to be all about real ale and pies because you're out on the moors. Ziang's Oriental Food Workshop, on the waterfront in Porlock Weir where Exmoor meets the sea, gives you a taste of something a little different for your after-walk lunch. Their streetfood dishes are pan-Asian and home cooked, with heavy emphasis on seafood and authenticity. They've even got a Youtube channel if you fancy mastering any of the recipes yourself.

An old Sea Quest fishing boat in the coastal village of Amble has been turned into an incredible steak restaurant. Only joking, it’s a heaven for seafood fans, with steaming bowls of mussels and great fish & chips alongside Thai fish curries and crab bon bons. The cosy interior has a real “below decks” feel, with creels, nets and buoys draped everywhere, while outside you get amazing views of the larder, more commonly known as the North Sea.

This is a classic country pub, but it very nearly wasn’t. A brief attempt to modernise the 16th-century coaching inn was carefully rolled back by the current owners and now the place feels like it’s been untouched since ale was served from the farmer’s kitchen window. It’s all big fires and old beams, with a skittle alley out the back and dog racing (we’re not entirely sure how this works) out front in the summer. There are casual walks along the Wharfe or good hikes up Burnsall Fell and Simon’s Seat in the area, so you can work up a thirst and settle in (on real settles) for a great pint and lunch if you time it right.

Matai Jowitt, a Kiwi who’s lived in Devon for years, started Creamos as an underground ice cream club, where he’d send members a single delicious flavour every week. Now there’s a shop in Ashburton, but the focus remains. He still only makes two or three flavours, with ingredients sourced locally and some unusual names. When we were last there, the menu featured “trash”, basically a combination of whatever was left over from the last few days. It sat alongside a more traditional berry flavour, so we tried both and can surprisingly report that the trash was the winner! Creamos might be overground now, but it still only opens for two days a week, making it even more of a rare treat. So next time you’re in the area, if you have a sweet tooth, if nothing else will do, and if you can time it, maybe you can have... the ice cream.

There are two Crafty Baas, one in Windemere, one in Keswick, and both of them are brilliant places to end a day in the lakes. The décor is, to put it mildly, unrestrained. The motto seems to be if you’ve got it flaunt, preferably by sticking it on the wall or hanging it from the ceiling. Live music nights fill the bar from Sunday to Thursday and the food will set you up for another big hike, with everything from delicious snacks to massive sharing plates of cheese. The drinks would give you a headache in more than the usual way, with the blackboard full of a bewildering array of beers, but the staff are knowledgeable, friendly and can find you the perfect pint.

What began in the late 70s as a simple but friendly fuelling stop for hikers and climbers has now become... exactly the same thing. Pete’s isn’t the sort of place to go looking for hand-sieved orzo with shaved edamame. It still serves, as proudly stated on their original charter, “pint mugs of tea, coffee, chocolate. Good portions of quality food.” Its location in Llanberis, deep in Snowdonia, means you aren’t likely to be wandering by, but it’s the sort of place you can base a day or a weekend around, striking out after a big breakfast and coming back for a late afternoon or evening snack.

No, this isn’t in here because it’s a terrible moor pun, it’s a great place to stop for food if you happen to be out and about in Pembrokeshire. It just happens to be a terrible moor pun. Café Mor prides itself on being the only solar-powered mobile seaweed kitchen in the world, a title it might not hold onto for long if owner Jonathan’s mission to bring seaweed into the foodie mainstream is successful. He uses several different varieties to bring a depth of flavour to almost every dish served, even putting seaweed butter in the famous lobster rolls and serving seaweed tea. The café can usually be found at Freshwater West beach from April to the end of October.

You don’t get the chance to go for a drink in the 12th century very often, but this cavernous old pub gives you exactly that. The bar is in the undercroft of the abbey, once thought to have been the prior’s cellar and you can eat upstairs under the vaulted ceilings of the dining room. It’s a real ale sort of place, with some great local choices on tap and simple, hearty food that’ll power you up the Beacons. For a pretty full day, take on the 24-mile horseshoe hike around the valley. It runs along ridges and across summits with stunning views, plus the route’s shape gives you the added perk of being able to cut it short in several places and just head for the pub.

Although Norwich is only 20 miles away, this beautiful pub is lost down a couple of B roads by a common in the village of Brisley, but it rewards you well for making the trip. You could hike or paddle the Broads and even spend the morning on the beach before heading over for lunch. It’s worth booking for food, as the locally sourced menu curated by Michelin-trained Herve Stouvenel draws people from far and wide, but this isn’t starched, formal dining. There’s a friendly air to the place, which was restored from dereliction in 2015 by a team keen to create the sort of place they’d want to hang out in their time off.

Bertie’s, part of the Fife Arms in Braemar, is deep into the Cairngorms and getting there sees you winding along narrow roads through the hills for a fair old way. It would be a huge disservice to call it a whisky bar, when 365 individual distillations line the walls, arranged by flavour profile, from fragrant and fruity to rich and smoky. The whole collection is backlit, giving the room an amber glow that makes it feel like you’re swimming in whisky. The staff are thankfully on hand to talk you through your options and, if a dram isn’t your thing, guide you to other bars and dining rooms where you can drink whatever you fancy.

The Station is much more than a nice place to visit if you’re hiking in the Dales, it’s a success story of the kind rarely seen. The old railway building in the lovely market town of Richmond was taken over by the charity Richmondshire Building Preservation Trust in 2007, who set out to make it a space that served the whole community. It’s now become a gallery, a cinema, a centre for talks and classes and home to several local businesses. You could, if you timed it right, watch a film, have some amazing ice cream, do some pilates, pick up artisanal chocolate, freshly baked bread and beer from the microbrewery, then stock up on books before you head home for an evening of eating, drinking and reading.