Ox Pasture Hall

Last weekend Scott and I were invited to stay at Ox Pasture Hall – a luxury country hotel near Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Neither of us have explored Yorkshire and it was my birthday that weekend (hello 30!), so it was a good time to have a weekend away. This is the view that greeted us when we arrived.

We checked in and were shown to our room which had a bedroom with a king size bed, a living area and a large bathroom.

Check out the view from our bedroom window! We could have been miles away from anything because all we could see was countryside.

Once we’d unpacked we had look around the grounds before it got too dark.

The wind was howling and it was starting to rain so we only explored a small area of the 17 acre grounds. At the back of the hotel was a pond with geese. I think they could sense I was from down South though because they ran away when I tried to get near them with the camera!

Even though we visited during winter the scenery was still beautiful with views across the moors in every direction.

Afternoon tea

After our walk we needed something to warm us up. Afternoon tea for two in front of the fire? Yes please! We made ourselves comfy on a big leather sofa in front of the wood burner and then this arrived…

Drinks: Hot chocolate (neither of us drink tea or coffee)

Top plate: Warm Yorkshire scones with strawberry jam and feather light cream.

Middle plate: Cheese and cucumber, cheese and cranberry and ham sandwiches.

Bottom plate: Chocolate and pistachio fudge cake, lemon cheesecake (made with vegetable gelatine), raspberry crème brûlée, mini lemon meringue pies and chef’s homemade fudge.

Our eyes probably popped out of their sockets when all this was put in front of us. So many delicious treats to try! It was all fantastic but we both agreed the raspberry crème brûlée was our favourite, closely followed by the scones.

A bit of exploring

We munched our way through an entire afternoon tea and then explored the area around the hotel for a while. It’s located in the North York Moors National Park and less than 5 minutes down the road is Raincliffe Gate – an entrance to ancient woodland. The area was beautiful and we would have liked to have spent more time walking but the light was fading so we headed back.

Dinner

For me, the food and drink was one of the highlights of our stay. As well as a Courtyard Restaurant they also have a bistro restaurant, which is where our dinner was served. Dinner started with a glass of Prosecco.

Our pre-starter was breaded egg with sweet, crunchy, pickled vegetables.

We both had butternut squash soup with homemade bread to start. I chose fruit and walnut bread; definitely something I’m going to try and recreate at home.

Soup was followed by pear poached in red wine with grapes, walnuts and celery.

Scotts main was braised brisket of beef with mash, carrots, silverskin onions, cabbage and mash. The beef was so tender.

I had the open lasagne (vegetarian). Layers of pasta with vegetables, spinach, pine nuts and parmesan cheese. Without doubt the best lasagne I have ever eaten and the whole dish was lovely and light – a good thing with dessert to come!

Our pre-dessert was a passionfruit and whisky sour with homemade sorbet.

We were both feeling quite full so we shared a dessert. The one that caught our eye was chilled mango rice pudding with pina colada. As soon as our eyes saw ‘pina colada’ we didn’t kid ourselves into thinking we’d even consider anything else. The bottom third of the glass was filled with rum and the other two thirds with pineapple sorbet. I need to learn how to make sorbet pronto. I can’t show you the rice pudding because we were so busy eating it, we forgot to take a photo.

After finishing our meal we walked through the courtyard garden back to our suite.

And flopped into our king size bed feeling full, sleepy and relaxed.

Breakfast with courtyard view

And just when you think ‘they can’t possibly eat any more, can they?’, we had breakfast. There was some tasty breakfast options on the menu including a full english but we both fancied something simple. Scrambled eggs with mushrooms for me, sausages and a poached egg for Scott.

We had a fantastic stay at Ox Pasture Hall; lovely staff, gorgeous room, amazing food and picturesque grounds. We’d like to go back at some point and do some proper walking in the national park — the hotel would be a great base for this.