While many pubs have adapted and modernised to stay afloat, Bath’s old Star Inn stays gloriously unchanged. There’s no food here except crisps and baps, no contemporary decor or fancy wine list; just local beers and jugs of draught Bass from barrels behind the bar, served in a series of little wood-panelled rooms and snugs where a fire burns in winter. The pub is built into one of Bath’s characteristic Georgian terraces, less than half a mile from the city centre’s sights, but just far enough to avoid crowds of visitors.
The smooth limestone facade, hung with flowering baskets and carriage lamps, is the glowing goal at the end of a spectacular afternoon’s walk along the Cotswold Way. This acorn-waymarked National Trail runs for 102 miles between Bath and Chipping Campden, through wooded wolds and caramel-stone villages. My plan is to get a bus up into the hills and walk the last few miles of the Cotswold Way back down into the city.
