There are plenty of pubs in Alnwick offering refreshment and good food.

The John Bull pub is a small traditional freehouse in Howick Street in an area built just outside the original town walls around 1830. It became a beer house shortly after contruction and has remained so since. It has nurtured a reputation for real ales and sells dozens of varieties of whiskies. To find out more about the John Bull, click here.

One of the earliest pubs in Alnwick was The Griffin, latterly The Nag's Head, in Fenkle Street, which probably dated from late 16th century. It is now flats and its yard made way for the present Morrisons supermarket.

A plethora of public houses sprung up towards the end of the 18th century and into the mid-19th century, as the demand for coaching and posting inns grew.

One of the most notorious is the Olde Cross, which has a "strange but allegedly true" Victorian story attached to it. As the owner changed a window display of bottles he suffered a heart attack and died, cursing the bottle as he went. A few years later the same fate befell another man who tried to move the bottles. They have remained untouched ever since and are covered in cobwebs. The pub is known locally as the Dirty Bottles, not unexpectedly.

The highly regarded Ye Olde Tanners Arms (there are a few "ye olde" things in Alnwick!) in Hotspur Street was once The Brewer's Arms. It has been around since the early 1800s and is next to a former tannery. It's names helpfully suggest it was frequented by tanners and brewery workers.

The Fleece overlooks Bondgate from without and was recorded as an inn from 1827. The town does also cater for the emerging generation of drinkers and socialisers - the curiously and innappropriately-named Hairy Lemon (formerly the Black Swan) is known for its wacky carpet, loud music and bouncers, and is one of several pubs trying to cater for the youthful market.