‘It makes you feel like a kid again’: snowed in at Britain’s highest pub
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Drinks flow and friends are made as people hunker down overnight at the Tan Hill Inn in North Yorkshire. “Do you want a shot?” asks Katy Sherrington from Durham, offering up a tiny glass of a pink liquid. Nobody is going anywhere at this point, so it would be rude not to.
![[Robyn Vinter]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/09/13/Robyn_Vinter_NextGen_Byline_template_V2.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
On Saturday night at the Tan Hill Inn, Britain’s highest pub, the snow is falling and the crowd of about 30 people inside know they are probably stuck here for a couple of days. Throughout the place, at the northern edge of North Yorkshire, drinks are flowing and friends are being made.
![[A window in purple light on to a room in the pub where people are talking and drinking]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e230713566a7c6ba98452c5c529da594844e503d/0_8_5500_3300/master/5500.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Weather warnings for snow are in place across much of the UK, and the Met Office has advised the public to only make necessary journeys, with road closures, train and flight cancellations, and rural communities becoming cut off. That is something the staff at the Tan Hill Inn, which is 528m (1,732ft) above sea level, are used to. The pub has a history of what people call “snow-ins” – in 2021, 61 punters who had come to watch an Oasis tribute band were trapped for three days.
![[Exterior of the pub in snowy conditions]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8bcf1b61a99c997afa0d636384a67003ffe1da44/0_0_5500_3300/master/5500.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
So the team are well prepared. Their electricity comes from a generator and there is enough food for about a month, “but hopefully it won’t come to that” jokes Nicole Hayes, one of the bar staff, who has done a number of phone interviews with local and national media in the run-up to the weather warning, such is the reputation of the pub.
![[A smiling group of people sitting around a table in the pub]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c832c6cf77586ffb111907beccf7997977eefe1c/0_549_4867_2921/master/4867.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Earlier in the evening, her colleague Elle Applegarth anxiously looked out the window, hoping it might still be possible to make an exit to go home and see her dog, Banana. Word came through that the snow gates on the nearby A66 were being closed at 10.30pm, which meant anyone hoping to leave needed to make their attempt very soon or they were likely to be here for a couple of days, as the snow was forecast to only get worse.
![[A woman holding a sledge in one hand holds the hand of a person in teddy bear costume]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/664af7840a90bdc6d0ae67e6ad23ae3a5cd1cf18/0_39_5500_3300/master/5500.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
