The Best Sunday Lunches in Northumberland

Mmmmm… Sunday lunch.

Honestly, is there anything better than a proper roast, seasonal vegetables, a Yorkshire pudding and lashings of gravy? I really can't think of anything right now.

Don't get me wrong, I love Lucy's Sunday lunch. And even more dangerously, her mum Lizzie is something of a master. But we spend a lot of Sundays out and about, so over time we've developed the very useful habit of arranging our day so that somewhere serving a good roast just happens to be nearby.

Pure coincidence, obviously.

These aren't necessarily the grandest dining rooms or the places with the longest menus. They're simply the Northumberland pubs we've eaten in, enjoyed, and found ourselves wanting to go back to.

The Pack Horse Inn, Ellingham

First, Ellingham.

Not Eglingham. We're going there next.

The Pack Horse is tucked away in the countryside near Brownieside, only a few minutes from the A1 but with that lovely feeling that you've somehow driven much further into the middle of nowhere.

And we love it.

Sunday lunch is everything we want it to be: locally sourced ingredients, lean, tasty meat, proper vegetables and a plate that feels as though somebody in the kitchen actually cares about Sunday lunch.

If you book ahead — or arrive early enough — dogs are welcome in the bar and snug, which makes it particularly useful after a morning walk.

Our favourite time to come, though, might actually be winter.

Pick a grim Northumberland Sunday, preferably with rain rattling against the windows, get yourself a table near the fire in the bar and order lunch.

You'll probably still be there at three o'clock.

Heather & Sand pick: The bar on a cold winter Sunday. Fire lit, Meg under the table and absolutely nowhere else you need to be.

The Tankerville Arms, Eglingham

Now we're in Eglingham.

See? Completely different.

Just make sure you spell the right one when programming the sat nav. Northumberland has a habit of giving villages suspiciously similar names and there are several directions you could disappear in if you get creative with the spelling.

The Tankerville Arms is another of our favourites.

The restaurant is popular at weekends, so we normally recommend booking if you know you're coming. But if you're feeling spontaneous, you can also eat in the bar if you manage to grab a table.

And that's actually rather nice.

Sunday afternoons here have a proper country-pub feel. Locals drift in, farmers come down from the surrounding hills and conversations start between people who didn't know each other ten minutes earlier.

On one visit, a chap stopped to admire Meg.

"You obviously know your collies," I said.

"Yes," he replied. "I have eight of them."

Fair enough.

Lunch is excellent, the atmosphere is wonderfully unforced, and it's exactly the sort of place where Sunday afternoon can quietly disappear.

The Cook & Barker Inn, Newton-on-the-Moor

The Cook & Barker at Newton-on-the-Moor will also blow your socks off.

And not because you got carried away with the horseradish.

This is another place where booking ahead for Sunday lunch is a good idea, particularly if you want to eat in the restaurant.

But again, we rather like the less formal option.

There's plenty of room around the bar, and when Northumberland decides to provide one of those unexpectedly glorious Sundays, there's a lovely beer garden outside too.

It's a proper country inn: comfortable rather than showy, good food, good portions and the sort of place that works equally well for a planned Sunday lunch or an accidental two-hour stop on the way home.

Although, in our experience, these stops are becoming increasingly less accidental.

The Joiners Arms, Newton-by-the-Sea

This one surprised us.

We've known The Joiners Arms for ages, mostly because it sits rather conveniently near one of our favourite stretches of the Northumberland coast.

We've stopped for drinks while walking the coastal path and eaten here plenty of times. Burgers, fish and chips, that sort of thing — good pub food in a lovely spot.

So we weren't particularly expecting the Sunday lunch to stand out.

It did.

The roasts are a definite step above what we'd expected: generous portions, properly cooked meat and vegetables, plenty of gravy, friendly service and — increasingly important these days — reasonably priced.

It has become one of those places we now actively think about when planning a Sunday walk.

Funny, that.

"We could walk from Beadnell to Low Newton today…"

"Good idea."

"And perhaps stop at The Joiners on the way back?"

"Oh. Hadn't thought of that."

Of course you hadn't.

Four Down. Plenty Still to Try.

This isn't supposed to be a definitive list of the best Sunday lunches in Northumberland.

How could it be? We haven't eaten them all yet.

Although we're prepared to put the hours in.

These are simply four places that have become favourites of ours — places where the food is good, the welcome is warm and Sunday lunch still feels like Sunday lunch.

There will be others.

In fact, we rather hope this page keeps growing as we find them.

Because a long walk beside the Northumberland coast followed by roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and enough gravy to require engineering calculations?

There are worse ways to spend a Sunday.

Much worse.