Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem is a pub in Nottingham, England, which is one of several pubs claiming to be the oldest in England. Built into the rocks underneath Nottingham Castle, it was originally the castle’s brewhouse which dates from the medieval period. It is currently a Grade II-Listed building.

History of Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

The pub venue is said to date back to 1189, although many sources place the pub as dating from several centuries later, with the oldest parts of the building dating back to the early 17th century. Even if this isn’t the oldest inn in England, there’s still a great deal of fascinating history contained within its walls.

The pub’s name derives from King Richard the Lionheart and his men gathering there before journeying to Jerusalem in 1189AD. It was also said to be a local hideout for the legendary outlaw, Robin Hood. Indeed, the word ‘trip’ in the name is thought to refer to a stop in a journey, rather than the journey itself, marking out the pub as somewhere people would stop at on a long pilgrimage, for instance.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the pub is its rear rooms which are effectively small caves, carved out of the sandstone rock that sits underneath Nottingham Castle. Further caves exist underneath the pub as part of its original use  bas a brewery. In one of the pub’s upstairs buildings is a small model of a wooden ship, known as the cursed galleon. It is said that a number of people who cleaned the ship all met an untimely and unexplained death, so landlords have since refused to let anyone clean it, and have instead put the ship into a glass cabinet. Elsewhere, the pub houses the ‘pregnancy chair’, an old chair which was said to increase a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant when she sat in it.

Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem today

Even if its exact timeline can’t quite be pinned down, Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem is a fantastic pub for anyone with an interest in history. It’s a genuinely atmospheric venue that gives off a sense of its past, particularly as you look through its many ancient artefacts or sip a drink in one of its cave rooms at the back.

Getting to Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

The pub is almost directly next to Nottingham Castle and is minutes away from Nottingham city centre. It is half a mile away from the city’s main rail station (approximately a ten-minute walk), and there are several city centre car parks minutes away from the pub.