If you’re a tourist visiting York there’s a massive chance that your guidebook will suggest a stroll down Stonegate. It is also likely that your pocket sized companion will inform you the street derived its name from the large limestone blocks that were carted up it to build the Minster.

And if you’re anything like thepubsofyork.com you’ll be looking for the “Pub” section of your paper-back informant to see if any of the four pubs on this ancient street are worth frequenting.

York’s premier pub review site doesn’t mind letting you know now, that all four (the other three being the Punch Bowl, Evil Eye and Yorkshire Terrier) are pretty good.

Ye Olde Starre Inne, which is Grade II Listed, is rich with history and is one of many pubs in York with claims to being the ancient city’s oldest tavern.

If you’re walking up Stonegate towards the Minster you will access Ye Olde Starre Inne via a long thin alleyway on your left hand side. Before entering the front door of the pub you’ll pass through a small beer garden, which is often home to a selection of the smokers who have been forced to congregate outside pubs since 1st July 2007, much to the delight of patio heater companies.

These same smokers can often be seen enjoying some fresh air in the pubs rear beer garden, which while slightly more picturesque doesn’t have quite the same atmosphere as the front space. Once inside you have several seating options, and you’ll probably marvel at the cosy, Olde Worldeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee vibe this place gives off.

The last time York’s premier pub review website visited, the range of ale on offer included four well kept and varied tipples, and of course, the standard commercial offerings you’d expect to see in an English pub.

If you believe everything you read on the World Wide Web (and there’s some pretty weird stuff about Prince and Marilyn Manson’s ribcages that thepubsofyork.com marvel at) you’ll be fascinated to hear that the cellar was used as a hospital and mortuary by Cromwell’s Roundheads; nowadays thepubsofyork.com assumes that all that is stored below the bar is delicious beer and cider.

A pretty young, vibrant crowd visit this place on week nights and Thursday nights witness the hosting of an Open Mic night. The bill seems to usually consist of young boys strumming away on cheap acoustic guitars while fighting with their vocal chords to sing a mournful Nirvana cover.

Don’t let this put you off though, the beers good, the staff are friendly and you can marvel that in the seventeenth century Cromwell’s men struggled for their lives in the space below your feet.

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