Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham

The name needs translating. "Ye" is pronounced "the." "Trip" meant a stop along the way, not the last stop. There were many more pubs along the way to Jerusalem. If the pilgrim hit every one, he might never get there. Imagine Crusader knights leaving the castle and riding to the pub to have "one for the road" before leaving for the Holy Land.

The pub is a three story whitewashed brick building. It is backed into the cliffs of Castle Rock. Above the entrance a painted sign proclaims the pub to be the "oldest inn in England." Perhaps. It is old enough to have served Richard the Lionheart and his jolly knights, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

Before 1799 the pub was known as "The Pilgrim." Locally, it is often referred to as "The Trip." Other pubs claim to be the oldest in England. In Nottingham alone, that claim is made by Ye Olde Salutation Inn and the Bell Inn.

The pub asserts it was operating as early as 1189 AD. The caves the pub is built against were certainly used as a brewhouse for Nottingham Castle in 1068. The oldest parts of the present building were most likely built around 1660. John Speed, a cartographer of the time, shows a building there in 1610.

The pub is like a cross between a pub and a museum. There are several bars and lounges holding artifacts of Nottingham's history. Favorite rooms are the Rock Bar or Yorkie's Lounge. There is also an extensive garden. Under the pub are some of the 800 caves carved into the sandstone cliffs of Nottingham.