Visit Charlbury: discover The Bull, voted best pub in the UK
There’s a moment – stepping off the train at Charlbury, maybe – when you pause. The air’s a touch cleaner. The trees feel somehow older, wiser. And somewhere, just out of view, someone is pouring a pint you really want to drink.
That pint, as it happens, is probably being poured at The Bull in Charlbury. Not just any pub – the best pub in the UK, according to this year’s National Pub & Bar Awards. A humble Cotswold stone building with a thatched roof and a fire that doesn’t just crackle but practically cackles with charisma. The Bull has long been a local favourite, but now it’s basking in its moment of national glory, and rightly so.
It’s the sort of food you wish you could recreate at home but know you never quite will. It’s hyper-local produce, wine lists you’ll photograph for later, and a dining room that feels like someone’s impossibly tasteful living room. This is rural dining, elevated, but never overdone.
Yet it’s not just The Bull in Charlbury that’s putting Charlbury on the map (though, frankly, it could). This tiny market town is something of a quiet marvel.
Gentle wandering
Wrapped in the folds of the Evenlode Valley, Charlbury is ringed by footpaths that tempt even the most committed city-dweller into walking boots. Meadows roll lazily toward the River Evenlode. The birdsong’s so pretty it feels like it’s been curated.
Wychwood Forest, once a royal hunting ground, looms nearby with its ancient oaks and hush-hush secrets. It’s perfect for picnics, pondering, or just getting delightfully lost for a while. And for those craving a cultural fix, Charlbury Museum offers a gentle amble through the town’s history, complete with vintage post boxes and Victorian scythes.
Delightful moments
There’s also the Charlbury Street Fair in September. Bunting, brass bands, cakes you’ll pretend are for the children. And the Charlbury Beer Festival, which takes place each summer in a flurry of barrels, folk music, and deliciously poor decisions.
But really, it’s the mood of the place that lingers. That sense of everything moving just a little slower. Of small moments: a coffee in the sun outside The Old Shed, a browse through the honesty bookshop in someone’s front garden – adding up to something quietly restorative.
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