The hotel: the Blue Lion started life in the 18th century as a coaching inn on the drovers’ road into Wensleydale, and it has twinkled benevolently down over East Witton’s enormous village green ever since. When you drive up, it looks every inch a belt-and-braces Yorkshire Dales local, but nowhere does a better job of melding authentic country-pub cosiness with star-quality food and service.

The bar is everything it should be — candlelight on flagstones, curvy antique settles and an inglenook fireplace that could easily accommodate half a tree. All it lacks is a corpulent squire chucking chicken bones over his shoulder and cursing his gout.

A couple of the bedrooms are on the small side — you could probably swing a cat in number 6, but never a lion. But you won’t be spending much time upstairs, and the classy, countrified furnishings make a virtue of the hotel’s arthritic floorboards and head-bumping eaves. The rooms in the recently converted stable block are especially appealing — snug little cubbyholes, perfect for a weekend canoodle.

It’s at dinner, though, that the Blue Lion really roars. The mile-long menu reads like something from the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall book of fur-and-feathers British cuisine, the one where all the recipes begin: “First, shoot your pheasant.” But that doesn’t mean you should expect paunchy Yorkshire puddings or custard by the slice. Everything is delicately presented and delectably cooked — from the salad of seasonal game birds with smoked foie gras, walnut pickle and sliced pear (£7.95), to the slow-roast honey-glazed duckling with apple gravy (£15). And, as befits a restaurant in Wallace and Gromit country, the dedicated cheese menu runs into double figures. It might be an idea to pack the wrong trousers (one size too large) for your journey home.

And if I can still move the next morning?
Apart from great grub, the Lion’s main attraction is its doorstep access to delicious limestone countryside. It looks especially tasty just now, when the riverside meadows are flecked with wild flowers and you have a good chance of rubbing noses with inquisitive adolescent lambs.

An hour’s easy stroll brings you to Jervaulx Abbey, a 12th-century stronghold of Cistercian monks. These were enterprising chaps who invented Wensleydale cheese, brewed their own beer, bred racehorses and did a little praying in their spare time. While booze and betting endure, their monastery is in picturesque ruins, but birds and butterflies love it, as will anyone seeking quiet contemplation on a summer’s evening.

In the other direction is Middleham, a small town with a big castle (the childhood home of Richard III) and a trademark Yorkshire Dales market square — cobbled underfoot, busy with community and shored up on all sides with little bakeries and come-hither pubs.

Please, no more mention of food!
How about water, then? The real scenic superstars of Wensleydale are its waterfalls. It’s a 20-minute drive west beside the River Ure to Aysgarth Falls, where Kevin Costner duelled with Little John in the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and another 15 minutes to Hardraw Force, where our hero took a shower under the highest unbroken cataract in England. Even more romantic is Whitfield Gill Force, a short but slippery walk out from Askrigg.

This, by the way, is the village that doubled as Darrowby in another screen blockbuster, All Creatures Great and Small.

All we ever seem to do in these Bolt Hole destinations is go walking and drink beer.
Don’t be churlish. The Blue Lion has an exemplary wine list. And, if you are sated by scenery, there is some rewardingly quirky shopping to be done. Wensleydale has a thriving arts and crafts scene, supported by refugees from the cities who have escaped here to paint, sculpt and generally potter about. From jewellery and stained glass to pullovers and teapots, if it’s old- fashioned and honestly made, you will find it in the workshops and galleries of Middleham, Leyburn and Hawes.

Who should go? People who like walking and drinking beer. And those who suspect they might, but always seem to end up lounging in the fields instead.

Who shouldn’t? Those who think the phrase “great British cooking” is as much an oxymoron as “Blue Lion”.

The Blue Lion (01969 624273, www.thebluelion.co.uk), in East Witton, has double rooms from £69 to £89, including breakfast. Dinner is à la carte; you’ll get three terrific courses for no more than £25

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