Stone Trough Hotel

Lovely stay. Clean & welcoming staff. Breakfast was plentiful. We did not have a meal but they looked very nice

Firstly this isn’t a hotel. It’s a pub with rooms, which are tired and need a refurb ( bath chipped and rusty, toilet cracked and I mean toilet not seat ) evening meal in pub it’s self good and staff good. Prices reasonable. Pub Toilets not big enough given size of restaurant/ lodging/ and the fact that camper van/ motor homes  can park on the car park overnight  and use facilities. Buffet Breakfast poor and trailered more to the motor home guest’s who only pay £15 a night to stay which includes breakfast. My advice get in early if you want best choice. 

Perfect for a night stay

We stayed for 1 night But it was a delightful short break. Would loved to stayed longer. But we went away well fed , breakfast was delicious.

We arrived quite late at the Old Stone Trough and were really hoping for a nightcap. The night manager (I wish I could remember his name!) was absolutely wonderful. Dressed smartly in a lovely suit, he went out of his way to make us feel welcome, and even sat down for a friendly chat which made the evening feel extra special. Breakfast the next morning was also excellent, with plenty of choice and great quality. Overall, a lovely stay – we will definitely return!

Having had time to reflect on what we coined at the time as a Fawlty Towers type experience, it almost seems more fitting to re-imagine a different sit-com of the time, whereby maybe Arkwright makes the same trip across the Pennines that we did to start a hotel, joined by Nurse Gladys, to remain ‘Open all Hours’. The hotel presents itself well and far from a tight-fisted Arkwright style. Indeed if fancy wallpaper and cushions are your thing, then you have landed on your feet. However underlying this is a budget filled approach that cannot be shaken. As for getting what you paid for, well we actually got a little of what the previous guests had paid for, in terms of a half-filled (not half-empty) miniature bottle of shower gel in the shower, 2 out of the original 3 custard creams on the drinks tray and pillows which one can only assume were the winners of a pillow fight that had gone on before. All of this though was only found after we managed to get into the room. Here we needed help as the lock was sticky and it felt like you were going to break the key off. The helpful receptionist though did get us in, you just had to j-j-j-jiggle it a bit !!! The room itself was compact and not quite bijou. I cannot recall the last time I could stand in the middle of a hotel bathroom, touch all 4 walls without moving, and still have a shower, wash basin and toilet. The bed filled the room, allowing just enough room to sidle down between it and the wall if you breathed in. It also seemed like the bed sloped towards the headboard and I had to sleep the other way around after waking in the night, feeling very light headed. Still having negotiated the bathroom in the morning, the breakfast would surely set us in our stride. Just 9 miles down the road, Skipton boasts award winning pies and butchers, what treats could we expect, well … not a lot really. We had forgotten that Arkwright was in charge of purchasing. Instead we were offered tea and coffee which were fine, although we heard a fellow guest ask for a second cup and then be advised that these were normally chargeable. There was apple and orange juice and a choice of two cereals, one of which were clearly the cheapest own brand cornflakes imitation the cash and carry could offer up. You could toast your own bread using the value slices of white and brown bread, as well as tucking into friend eggs; pretty reasonable bacon; the cheapest ‘pork’ sausages; watery value baked beans and tinned tomatoes (possibly by luck, as it could have been tinned peaches for those that know the sitcom). We politely enquired about vegetarian options, only to be advised that there were no veggie sausages as they had not been to the cash and carry yet! Although there were some samosas around somewhere if that was of interest (it wasn’t). Still the hotel offers a convenient stop off with pleasant views as the gateway to a trip into Yorkshire. One is reminded though that you normally only stop briefly at a gatehouse and push qu