North Yorkshire snowfall left 23 guests and staff stranded at the UK’s highest pub.
Twenty-three visitors, including a four-year-old child, and also a dog and six staff, were trapped in the Tan Hill Inn which lies at 1,732ft (528m) above sea level in the north Pennines of North Yorkshire, on Sunday and Monday.
After a ‘convivial evening’ and a late start the guests tucked into a ‘Tan Hill Full English’ before having a snowball fight in the car park, which was closed at the weekend due to four-foot snow drifts.
Manager Nicole Hayes, 32, said: “The guests all seem happy and it doesn’t look like anyone is planning on trying to go anywhere at the moment.”
The enforced stay brought on a party atmosphere on Monday as the left-over presents from the inn’s Christmas Experience were handed out and guests played board games. “It was a lovely atmosphere,” said Nicole. “People mingled and gave up worrying about getting home for work. The drinks flowed and it was all very genial.”
Three of the guests are experiencing a holiday with a difference. They are Naomi and Paul Wright, and son Declan, 22, from Katherine, near Darwin, Australia, who are touring the UK with their English family.
Guests were said to be enjoying a few glasses of Malbec along with ales including Tan Hill ale and Theakston’s Old Peculier.
The pub, which is completely off-grid, is well prepared for such emergencies. So much so that in 2017 it was chosen for the filming of Waitrose’s Christmas advert, portraying guests being snowed in and making their own seasonal dinner.
This actually happened in November 2021 when 61 guests were trapped by heavy snow during Storm Arwen. Owner Andrew Hields said: “There is a long tradition of hospitality at the Tan Hill Inn which myself and the team are proud to continue. It’s height and isolation make it a special, and sometimes precarious, place to visit but we’ll make sure those guests and staff who are stranded will be well looked after.”
Guests snowed in at the Tan Hill Inn, North Yorkshire, in January 2025
(Image: Tan Hill Inn)
Manager Nicole Hayes and guest Paul Wright with a Tan Hill pub Yorkshire pudding
(Image: Tan Hill Inn)
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