The Stable Bar

The Stable Bar, as befits its name, has a somewhat rustic ambience, and retains many of its original period features such as the sloping flag floor and the horse stalls, in which customers now sit amidst horse tack & hay rack. The building’s origin is a little uncertain, however it was part of The Railway Hotel, which was rebuilt around the late 1800’s early 1900’s from an earlier Inn on the site called, The Bulls Head – We know nothing of the origins of this building, but a stone carving of a Bulls Head, taken from the original pub, is still in place at the Hotel – See if you can find it!

The Railway Hotel came into being at the beginning of the steam era, and the Stable Bar was then the original stables for the horses that carried passengers up the steep incline to the Hotel, from the station in Monsal Dale below. Guests can still ‘tie the nosebag on’ (as they say in Derbyshire) with some superb, value for money, ‘real’ food. They may also like to try one of our many cask ales sourced from local micro breweries, or simply take the air and enjoy the view in our large outdoor seating area.

The railway station in Monsal Dale opened in 1866, to serve the villages of Upperdale and the cotton mills of Cressbrook. The ‘down’ line and platform were built on a shelf carved in the rock face, whilst the ‘up’ was built on wooden trestles over the hillside. It closed in 1959, and nothing now remains of the timber buildings.

Built by the Midland Railway in 1867 to carry the line to Buxton, the ‘Headstone Viaduct’, usually incorrectly called the ‘Monsal Dale Viaduct’, towers over the River Wye below, with the Monsal Trail now passing airily over.

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