'Best beach bar in UK', Northumberland in Best Pubs in Britain

The Good Food Guide, Britain’s authority on eating out since 1951, published its inaugural list of the 100 Best Pubs in Britain, in partnership with Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and supported by Tracklements and Koffmann’s Potatoes.

Taking the number one spot in Britain is The Highland Laddie in Leeds, a 100-year-old city centre institution that reopened in April 2025.

The Kirkstyle is located in the remote village of Slaggyford (Image: Kirkstyle Inn)

Several Northumberland pubs were recognised in the list, including The Kirkstyle Inn & Sportsman’s Rest at Slaggyford, near Haltwhistle, and The Ship Inn, at Low Newton-by-the-Sea, Alnwick.

The Kirkstyle Inn was celebrated as one of the best hospitality businesses in the country when it was awarded three AA rosettes in September.

The Ship Inn was described as one of the best beach bars in the UK by Conde Nast Traveller (Image: Tripadvisor)

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The business is featured in the AA Restaurant Guide 2026, a guide showcasing the very best restaurants across the UK.

Described by Visit Northumberland as 'a four-bedroomed gastropub of distinct character and outstanding design', it has 'earned a great reputation for its culinary delights'.

The menu is focused on game, with 'seasonality and sustainability at the core'.

Condé Nast Traveller rated The Ship Inn as the best beach bar in the UK.

It also described Low Newton-by-the-Sea as one of the 'prettiest spots' on the region's coastline, which is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

Food at The Ship Inn (Image: Tripadvisor)

"You might imagine the British climate scuppers the chances of finding a good beach bar on home soil," the travel experts said.

Looking out over the 'vast sandy beach', the 'tiny' Ship Inn is based in the centre of a 'horseshoe of whitewashed cottages set around a village green where a cluster of trestle tables face the sea'.

The Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Pubs welcomed nominations from its readers, resulting in longstanding favourite The Broad Chare in Newcastle winning the Readers’ Choice Award.

Despite the doom and gloom picture of Britain’s pubs, with closures currently averaging one per day in 2025, The Good Food Guide is celebrating the nation’s thriving appetite for genuine pubs with proper food and proper beer.

Editor of The Good Food Guide, Chloë Hamilton, said: "We went searching for the pubs that nail the drinking and dining side of the equation. It turns out the harder you look the more you find, and they’re not all hidden away in the Cotswolds. The Highland Laddie – a city-centre slam dunk – is a very good case in point."