Dog-Friendly Pubs in Northumberland

Northumberland is, generally speaking, wonderfully dog-friendly. In fact, it would be quite high on our list of reasons why we're so happy here.

So perhaps this guide would be better titled Pubs Where Meg Feels Most Welcome.

Because there's dog-friendly — and then there's somewhere you can wander into after a long walk, slightly windswept and possibly covered in sand, with a damp collie beside you, and immediately feel as though nobody minds one bit.

These are some of those places.

The Landing, Beadnell

One of our absolute favourites is The Landing at Beadnell Bay.

It's not really what you'd call a traditional pub. Think more relaxed beach bar: good food, coffee, wine and beer, a few minutes from the sand.

More importantly for this particular guide, the staff have always been wonderfully welcoming and all seem to genuinely love dogs.

We've been there on an evening enjoying a pint of Shipyard and a Sauvignon and realised there were almost as many dogs as people. All breeds, all sizes and, somewhat annoyingly for anyone hoping for a good story, all behaving beautifully.

Meg feels completely at home here.

So do we.

The Joiners Arms, Newton-by-the-Sea

The Joiners Arms makes an excellent stop if you're walking this stretch of the Northumberland coast.

On a warm summer afternoon, sitting outside with a drink after a walk is pretty hard to beat.

Oddly though, my favourite memory of the place involves absolutely appalling weather.

Storm Barra. December 2021.

Quite stupidly, Meg and I decided it would be fun to walk Link House Beach with our friend Madoc in what felt like hurricane-force winds.

Walking towards Beadnell was like landing on Mars.

The sand had been stripped from huge sections of the beach and blown into enormous drifts at one end, leaving rock and clay exposed beneath our feet. Every few seconds another blast sent tiny grains of sand hurtling horizontally across the beach like miniature darts.

Every step forward required genuine commitment.

Hoods were up.

Madoc had goggles on.

Meg simply put her ears back and her tail up, presumably imagining she'd finally been called upon to do some proper collie work up on t'moor.

A walk that would normally take around 45 minutes took us the best part of two hours.

Eventually we turned around.

With the wind now behind us, we were practically blown back towards the pub.

Remarkably, The Joiners Arms was open.

Four o'clock on a December afternoon. Storm raging outside. Christmas lights already glowing inside.

And in the bar?

A barman.

Two idiots.

And a dog.

It was fantastically comforting.

Sometimes that's the best test of a dog-friendly pub.

The Middle Inn, Bamburgh

I seem to have a particular fondness for pubs discovered — or rediscovered — in foul weather.

Which brings us to Bamburgh.

The Middle Inn has hosted us when we've arrived absolutely wet through, with Meg gradually drying herself beside the fire while we recovered in the bar.

There's something rather lovely about coming in from a Northumberland day when the weather has completely defeated you.

Wet coats off.

Dog settles down.

Pint arrives.

Suddenly the rain doesn't seem such a terrible thing after all.

On a fine day it's an entirely different place, with an excellent beer garden and Bamburgh waiting outside the door.

The Lord Crewe, Bamburgh

Just along the road is The Lord Crewe.

It feels a little more polished than some of our usual post-walk haunts, but we've always found it equally welcoming when Meg has been with us.

Again, we've experienced it at its best after being caught by Northumberland weather — when somewhere warm, comfortable and dog-friendly becomes considerably more important than whatever you'd originally planned for the afternoon.

And if you've somehow managed to visit Bamburgh when it isn't raining sideways, there's a lovely outdoor area here too.

So, which is our favourite?

That's difficult.

The Landing probably wins for those easy Beadnell evenings when we've walked off the beach and aren't quite ready to go home.

The Joiners Arms has one of our favourite memories attached to it.

And the Bamburgh pubs have rescued us from the weather often enough that we probably owe them all a pint.

Perhaps that's really what we're looking for when we say dog-friendly.

Not simply a sign on the door saying dogs are allowed.

It's somewhere you can arrive with muddy boots, windswept hair and a slightly damp collie — and still feel genuinely welcome.

Those are the places Meg remembers.

And, strangely enough, so do we.