Mike Henderson
The Hillend Tavern, Hillend, Fife Mike has run the community-led pub the Hillend Tavern in Hillend, near Dalgety Bay, in Fife, with his wife, Francesca, since 2011. The Hillend Tavern was a finalist for Best Dogfriendly Pub in the 2023 Scottish Bar & Pub Awards What have been the highlights of 2023? “After we took over 12 years ago, we added real ales on draught so it was great for us to win Pub of the Year for Scotland and Northern Ireland from CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale this year. It’s great advertising for us – we’ve been in The Scotsman and other media. It’s increased our footfall substantially – we’ve had people coming from Edinburgh and Glasgow. We wish we had a bigger cellar but we just don’t have the space.” What changes have you seen in 2023? “Gas and electricity bills have all shot up and the brewers have put their prices up, and unfortunately we’ve had to pass some of that on to our customers. But we think that, if we have the quality and give them something for them to come out for, they will still come.” What are your expectations for 2024? “We’re a big rugby pub so we’re looking forward to the Six
Nations tournament in February and March. That’s going to be big for us. We are a friendly pub for the community with regular customers, and next year we have quite a few customers turning 60 within four months of each other so we have parties lined up for each of them.”
Johnothan Ditchfield
The Craven Arms, Giggleswick, North Yorks Johnothan runs The Craven Arms, a freehouse with a cosy bar, restaurant and letting rooms, with his wife Lynn What have been the highlights of 2023? “We took over the pub on a lease from a local farmer in 2016 but in April we bought the pub ourselves. It secures our future. You always want to improve the business but, as a lessee, you are reluctant to spend anything big on it. Now everything we spend on the pub will come back to us.”
What are your expectations for 2024? “We’re hoping for better weather as that does make a difference. We have plans for building a gazebo in our garden for the summer. We have eight letting rooms and want to update them in 2024. We have a few bookings already for 2024 and one from a rambling group for 2025. But we are always looking at the figures in case the cost of living does start to hit.” www.craven-arms.co.uk
What new trends have you seen in 2023? “Things have returned to normal patterns for the pub and the letting rooms since Covid. We had a very good 2023, even though the weather’s not been good, and we didn’t notice any impact from the higher cost of living. We’re in the Yorkshire Dales and get lots of tourists as well as local people so we’re busy weekdays and weekends.”
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WINTER 2023
magazine.inapub.co.uk
