The Royal Arms

The Royal Arms is an appealing, four-square old stone pub in a tiny fold of mill-workers cottages beside a winding back road high in the West Pennine Moors; walks from the door drop into the deer-haunted Roddlesworth Woods around a picturesque string of reservoirs, or climb to the imposing Jubilee Tower on nearby Darwen Hill. There's an engaging hotchpotch of furnishings in the characterful, flag-floored, beamed little rooms with log fires together with fascinating old photos of the local villages in their mill-town heyday. The bar is rich with pickings from Lancashire micro-breweries. Take a glass of Glen Top out to tables on the lawn; listen to curlews call on the reedy moors and study the appealing, regularly changing menu of home-cooked goodies, including cheeky leeky pie (chicken, leek and onion) and some great spicy dishes. Sunday roasts or a fulfilling steak and pepper pie take the chill off a bracing winter walk. The annual beer festival takes place in September.