Black Bull Hotel

This hotel was nice and clean with everything you could need for a night away. The only issue was that we were on the top room and the heating wasn’t working on our room. Once we came in the room was freezing this impacted my asthma the next day and we had to leave quickly in the morning. The room and service was great however.

We stayed here for 1 night as other nearby places were booked up. The hotel looks nice from the outside but is a bit dark & dated inside. We were welcomed straight away & shown to our room but this was the last time we saw a member of staff. The room was a decent size but again was quite dated, it was clean but not spotless and the milk sachets provided were out of date. A full English breakfast is advertised as being included in the price and menus and breakfast order forms were provided in our room however we were informed by other guests that no food was available at all, we should have really been told this by the staff on arrival. Had an ok night's sleep but not great, if you're after a quiet night then it's probably not the place for you. No staff were to be seen in the morning and the pub was all locked up so we just left room keys on the side and left via the back door. We went to the Pennine Inn just down the road for our breakfast - would highly recommend this and book earlier for a room there in future. The Black Bull was adequate for a night but I wouldn't stay again, definitely not worth £100 plus, horrendously overpriced for what we got. Hopefully the new owners can turn it around as the Kirkby Stephen area itself is lovely and worth a visit.

Visited for lunch and can honestly say this was the worst experience we have had. Beer was awful. Wine was awful. They should be reported to Trading Standards. Menu stated sandwiches were on toasted farmhouse bloomer bread. What we actually received was cheap, supermarket, thin sliced, soggy white bread. There was no tartare sauce on the fish finger sandwich, as described on the menu. We struggled to find the fish inside lots of batter. The chips were lukewarm and inedible. The steak sandwich had no onions, again as described on the menu, and was so soggy it just collapsed. We would advise anyone in the area to look elsewhere for a meal.

Quite pricey for a small double room (bed up against the wall) with no breakfast, bed was comfortable room lovely and warm

Unfortunately we decided to eat here. The food was terrible. Cold nachos with cold cheese sauce. Cold wings which were smothered in cold bbq sauce. The prawns were ok as they were evidently deep fried and pre bought. We are a group of 6 eating here with a bill totalling £80+ My friends meals were equally terrible with child sized portions and food served not as described on the menu. When asked if everything was ok we explained our dissatisfaction and were met with a non plus response which was almost argumentative and defensive. Almost as if they did not care.

Another honest review. So we stayed 2 night over the New Year 2023 as we wanted to get away from the city hustle and bustle and it’s exactly what we got. Room was fine and had a huge bath with a good hot shower . The staff we met were all great, happy and would answer any questions, breakfast was good too. I’d deffo come back.

Very tired, dirty floor and walls no staff to accommodate in the morning of checkout and only person that works in morning didn’t speak English so not helpful when needing to ask questions

Tired building

Check in was via the bar staff, and although there were only two of them, this was ok and we were taken to our rooms. I was in Room 1. I was disappointed to find no light bulbs in the reading lights over the bed. In the bathroom, the towel rail was loose on the wall, and only just held by two screws. It had a rail missing as well. Also, there was no toilet roll holder. In addition, for the double bed there was only one bedside table, but there would have been no room for one anyway. The cooked breakfast was fine, but I had to ask for marmalade/ jam to go on toast. In general, breakfast service was poor. And to check out, we had to search the property for someone to hand over the keys to. For the price I paid -£144 - I felt it was very bad value. The saving grace was the location, which was excellent.