The Shireburn Arms

The rural scenery around Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley brings walkers from far and wide to enjoy the tranquility of this relatively undiscovered area, and we're pleased to report that this 17th-century hostelry offers excellent and reasonably priced food and a handful of rooms to those who want to stay overnight in this lovely and relatively unspoilt area.

Most of the pub's rooms have been refurbished in a contemporary country style with antique furnishings, comfy beds with goosedown pillows, en-suite bathrooms with toiletries, flatscreen TVs, ample storage, bottled water and tea-making facilities. The bedrooms near the reception desk are probably the best (numbered 12 through 5), while at the other end of the hotel, room 3 has an enormous four-poster bed.

Breakfast is included with the room price, and overall head chef Nathan Riddehough and his band of merry men create consistently good dishes at lunch and dinner, with roast dinners, beef brisket, steak pies, delicious risotto and scrumptious desserts. The service can’t be faulted, and the pub is also a good place to stop by for just a drink, with three separate spaces, a roaring fire and plenty of seating. During summer, an outside patio space is utilised for outdoor dining.

There are views out to Pendle Hill and two significant rivers, the Ribble and the Hodder, the latter spanned by a 16th-century packhorse bridge that Cromwell and his troops used to cross the river when advancing on Preston during the Civil War. Not far from here, there are more historic sights, notably Stoneyhurst College – a collection of mainly 16th-century sandstone buildings famous for being the place where JRR Tolkien wrote 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings' when he stayed here during the war. You can even follow a Tolkien Trail, which begins near the Shireburn Arms and circles back via the river to the pub – a walk of  around 5 miles that gives you a good taster of the Ribble Valley.