The Bull at Burford

The Bull at Burford

The Bull at Burford opened in 1536 as a coaching inn, a stop where horses recovered before the next stretch of road. That same idea of a place to catch your breath survives in the current version: a Grade II listed 16th-century building on Burford High Street, in the city centre near the Tolsey Museum and the Church of St John the Baptist, holding just thirteen rooms. Guests choose between three restaurants under one roof: Horn for an ever-changing seasonal menu, Wild for chef Ben Chamberlain's eleven-course tasting menu built around fire and voted into the UK's top 100, and Sl'ice for pizza and gelato from a 2025 Pizza Maker of the Year and a chef formerly of The Connaught. At Graze, the cocktail bar, the fixture worth noticing is a Banksy disco helmet once worn at the Met Ball, not something any other Cotswolds inn can offer. Bedrooms are finished with lime-washed walls, organic textiles and furniture built for an imperfect, lived-in finish, and a first-floor treatment suite covers the massages. Breakfast can be taken in the room, diet menus are available on request, and staff move between English, French and Spanish without missing a beat. Dogs are welcome, though owners should bring bedding, since none is supplied and charges apply. There is no on-site parking, so travellers without a car do better here, helped by a Land Rover pickup service from Charlbury station. Anyone wanting a big, anonymous hotel should look elsewhere. Anyone wanting eleven courses of fire-cooked food after a day walking the high street will find it difficult to leave before last orders. A 16th-century coaching inn in the centre of Burford, now a thirteen-room hotel with three restaurants, including chef Ben Chamberlain's eleven-course fire menu at Wild, and a bar built around a Banksy disco helmet. No parking, but dogs and a Land Rover pickup from Charlbury station are both welcome.