Bar Review The Stables

Just beyond Headingley lies Weetwood, and hidden behind Weetwood Hall hotel is a great little summer pub

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While Headingley is famous for the quantity of its pubs, rather than the quality (apart from one or two exceptions), its next neighbour to the north, Weetwood, is in the reverse position, having very few pubs, but some really good ones.

The Stables isn’t the kind of pub that you just chance upon wandering around north Leeds. It’s hidden away at the back of Weetwood Hall conference centre and hotel, which itself is down at the end of a good 100m long drive. Don’t be put off by memories of those charmless, boring hotel bars though. Weetwood Stables avoids all the characterless, corporate blandness that tarnishes the name of hotel-based drinking dens. This feels like a proper old pub with lashings of history, even if the building only became a pub in recent history.

People bother to seek out The Stables, and with good reason. One of those reasons is that it’s an interesting little place. Built, unsurprisingly, in the old stables of Weetwood Hall, the pub still retains plenty of original features – large wooden beams, stone walls and so on – and happens to serve up a splendid pint. Listed in CAMRA‘s Good Beer Guide and claiming Cask Marque status (meaning they look after their real ales properly), while The Stables can’t compete with some city centre pubs with the number of ales on offer, the selection of three or four ales are brilliantly looked after and served, meaning that what you do taste (often local stalwarts like Copper Dragon‘s superb Golden Pippin or Timothy Taylor‘s Landlord) comes at its very best. Which is what you want, isn’t it.

It’s not just a pub for real ale enthusiasts, mind. If the attraction of good beer and a historic setting isn’t enough for you, there’s also a massive courtyard area outside, which makes it a fine spot for sun chasing – in those rare sunny moments we’re getting this summer – and it also offers up good old classic pub grub as well, plus there’s footy on the telly, board games behind the bar if your conversation dries up and a good old Sunday night quiz too.

We’ll probably be down here next time the sun dares raise its head for more than five minutes – and we suspect a good proportion of north Leeds will be with us.

Posted on Wednesday 1st September 2010
TG

The Stables

Weetwood Hall Conference Centre, Otley Road, leeds, LS16 5PS

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