★ In our guides ↓

On Our List

The Pheasant Inn

A wonderful country inn at Stannersburn with individually styled rooms, an excellent restaurant and a genuinely warm welcome - well worth booking ahead.

Address:

Stannersburn, Kielder Forest, Hexham, NE48 1DD
Call:
01434 240382

Hours:

Daily: 12pm - 3pm, 6pm - 11pm

Map

Good to Know

The Pheasant Inn is a country inn at Stannersburn, about a mile from Kielder Water, in a farmhouse dating back to the 17th century. It has two bars, open fires and rooms. Open daily at lunchtime and in the evening.

Tom's Notebook

Best for: Dinner after a day at Kielder, and an overnight stay before an evening at the Observatory.

Food: Slow-cooked lamb, ox cheek, belly pork, maple-glazed gammon, Sunday roasts and sticky toffee pudding.

Best time: Book ahead for dinner and rooms, especially at weekends.

On Our List

The Pheasant kept turning up in searches around Heather & Sand, and it's exactly the sort of inn we'd hope to find near Kielder.

Why people seem to like it

Inside it's what you'd hope for after a day in the forest: dark wood, red upholstery, brass beer taps, open fires and walls hung with old photographs of the valley. The food is the big draw, and guests describe the rooms as comfortable and spotless.

Not every visit is perfect

One or two guests mention breakfast being less memorable at later sittings, but complaints are few and far between.

So, would we go?

Yes. It's well placed for Kielder Water & Forest Park and evenings at Kielder Observatory, and a fire and a proper dinner sound perfect after a long day out.

But this isn't our review — not yet. When we've been, we'll replace it with what we found ourselves.

Heather & Sand verdict: On Our List. A characterful 17th-century country inn with excellent food and comfortable rooms, ideally placed for Kielder.

A Little Note From Heather & Sand

We haven't quite made it here ourselves yet, but it's on our list!

We're working our way around Northumberland, personally visiting and reviewing as many of the places featured in our Listed section as we can. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

In the meantime, we do our homework. Before adding somewhere to Heather & Sand, we research it, look at what other visitors have to say and check that it has a good reputation. If the feedback isn't encouraging, it generally doesn't make our list.

Of course, a little online research is no substitute for muddy boots, a decent coffee and seeing somewhere for ourselves. So until we've visited, we'll leave the personal review to one side.

A little about us...

Heather & Sand is our little corner of Northumberland — a collection of places, stories, walks and discoveries from a county we love.

Through our Journal, Guide and Listed pages, we hope to help you discover somewhere new, revisit an old favourite or simply enjoy a little Northumberland from wherever you happen to be.

Tom, Lucy & the Heather & Sand crew.

Featured in our guides