The Ancient Unicorn

Lovely rooms , comfy bed & comfy pillows , great shower. Service & hospitality was fantastic ! Would highly reccomend.

Lovely stay with lovely hosts. If you’re gluten free, the landlord is coeliac so you get a fabulous breakfast!

Lovely stay Very cosy

Lovely historical property and good value for money. Quiet location, great stop off for travelling on the A66, with Barnard Castle just a short drive. Easy check into cosy courtyard cottage. Nicely decorated and furnished, though the bed would benefit from a better quality mattress. Friendly staff and good breakfast. Evening pub menu satisfactory but not exceptional.

Very friendly, helpful staff.

Fabulous room . Helpful, friendly staff . Lovely food .

The pub/hotel has evolved from a traditional coaching inn which has being doing basically the same job for over 400 years. Our room was basic, but had character (window seats) and the main facilities were fine (good bed, plenty of heating and lots of hot water). There is parking in the old cobbled coaching yard and the town of Bowes is quiet, but conveniently close to the A66.

Landlady was amazing. I arrived in a sorry state coming off the Pennine way. An hour later showered and fed I was on my way into BC in a taxi she organised. Room was clean and the whole place had been been repainted and felt looked after.

Loved our first experience at the ancient unicorn wonderful staff beautiful food I would highly recommend anyone to stay or visit you won’t be disappointed A****

Charles Dickens cottage was great for a family of 4 on a short break. Comfortable and convenient location just off A66 without braking the bank. Great to have a fully equipped kitchen as well if you have kids to feed.

We (couple adult daughter dog) stayed at the Ancient Unicorn to break the journey between East Anglia and Scotland. We arrived at the charming inn located in the centre of the lovely Pennine village of Bowes to be told that we had been upgraded to the Charles Dickens Cottage(!) because there was a problem with our booked room. The Cottage was immaculate and comfortable with a fantastic shower. Despite the fact that the staff were very busy because there was a folk group getting set up to play in the bar nothing was too much trouble for Karli and her staff to make us welcome. We had an excellent dinner of home-made food (made earlier in the day by Karli!) in the dog-friendly restaurant and then enjoyed a pint of real ale in the bar. And the cooked breakfast in the morning was fabulous. A perfect stay and so, so much better than a generic motorway hotel. The area is full of attractions in its own right (we had a quick look at the ruin of Bowes Castle just up the road) and we will be back!

I stayed with 2 female friends in a small but comfy courtyard room. We stayed for tea on the night and it was gorgeous, the staff were friendly and accommodating swapping the meal to suit our needs. Next morning breakfast was included so we all had a large full English, veg option available. We will definitely be back. Small issue re damp smell in bathroom but loved the place.

Friendly, helpful staff. Modern, very clean en-suite room with comfortable bed. Evening meal and breakfast good. Great to meet Gus the dog!

The hotel is self service. I received a text with a code to open a key box. The latch and lock on the bedroom door were broken on the inside, meaning that I could unlock the door from the front but could not latch or lock it. I had to push the sofa against the door overnight for security as I had a lot of expensive camera equipment in the room. There was no internet available despite being promised and sent a WiFi password. The walls were paper thin and I was woken up by drunken guests at 1am followed by another wake up at 3am due to a man loudly vomiting.

We loved our stay. The staff were lovely and the whole place was cute and friendly

Nice stay in an historic inn, with clean room, good pub food and a hearty breakfast. Reasonable price too - what's not to like?

We loved the quaintness of the hotel - it was beautiful too. The area is perfect for walking/rambling and was very quiet. The staff we encountered were lovely, kind, helpful and polite. And we particularly loved Gus, the resident doggie. Checking in was easy when we realised it was a staff-free experience and had to use codes and lock boxes to get the keys - simple and effective.

It was in a quiet wee village but if you have a car you can go to town I upgraded to a cottage and it had a microwave and kettle also a hob was very clean and there’s parking the breakfast and food was lovely would go again

Booked the Deluxe double as a stop over, and had a lovely night's sleep.

No WiFi available in our room even though it is stated on the website. You had to go down to the door of the bar in the pub to pick up the WiFi. I contacted the number given and they sent the WiFi password a couple of hours later after they obviously didn't read my message properly. I measured back but heard nothing else. The hairdryer in the room turned on, got hot without blowing air and then shut down, I left a note saying this may be a fire hazard.