16th century inn offers 21st century comfort

The White Swan Inn, a 16th Century coaching inn that once fed and watered weary travellers on their journey across the North Yorkshire Moors, is still performing the same function today but with a lot more comfort and style than guests would have expected back then.

Originally built in 1532, as a four-room cottage in the centre of the market town of Pickering, The White Swan Inn was soon extended and pressed into service as a coaching inn for the York to Whitby stagecoach. The Inn was also the haunt of smugglers moving salt from the coastal town of Whitby, via Saltersgate, in Pickering to the thriving medieval city of York.

Still visible at the side of the building are the joist stones that once supported an aerial walkway and a small entrance to the property next door. This secret passageway was used as an escape route by the smugglers who would transfer their haul of salt next door when the Excise men came searching.

Owned and run, for the past 24 years by the Buchanan family, the White Swan Inn now has 22 bedrooms. There are 13 in the original building, all individually decorated in keeping with the age of the building - sumptuous fabrics, antique furniture and crisp white bed linens. Just across the courtyard, the stable block which would have housed the horses and grooms, has been converted into 9 stunning new rooms. Contemporary in style with state-of-the-art fixtures and furnishings, these double bedrooms and split-level suite, offer a complete contrast to the main hotel.

Coolly elegant slate-tiled floors, luxurious beds and linens, en-suite bathrooms with double shower wet rooms and the latest in CD, DVD, and flat-screen TV technology are all the order of the day.

It’s the atmosphere that makes the The Swan Inn such a wonderful place to stay, roaring fires, a cosy bar, comfy snug and the stylish Club Room make visitors return again and again. The restaurant’s wine list and fine menu have given The White Swan an excellent reputation for miles around. The organic meat from the award-winning Ginger Pig Farm, just 6 miles up the road, takes some beating and the chef’s special chocolate cake has become a legend in these parts.

Now travellers arrive from all over the world by rail, air and car, the welcome is always warm and their stay memorable and a promise that the Excise men certainly won’t be calling.