Best Restaurants Near The Barn: Clipston and Market Harborough

Eating well around Clipston takes a small amount of planning, because this is genuine countryside rather than a restaurant district. The village has a pub and very little else, Market Harborough ten minutes north has most of what you would want, and a handful of good places sit in the villages between the two. If you are staying at the large cottage near Market Harborough, everything below is inside a twenty-five minute drive.

What follows is the list guests actually use, ordered by how far you have to travel rather than by any ranking. For the wider town, our guide to things to do in Market Harborough covers the shops, the market days and the rest of it.

Restaurants and pubs near The Barn at Clipston

1. The Bulls Head, Clipston

The village pub, and a proper one rather than a gastropub that has forgotten it is a pub. It is a five-minute walk from The Barn, which makes it the only place on this list you can reach without moving a car, and that alone changes what an evening looks like.

It is the obvious first night, particularly if you have arrived late and nobody wants to cook or drive. Clipston is small and the pub is its social centre, so it fills on Friday and Saturday evenings. Ring ahead if there are more than four of you.

2. The George at Great Oxendon

Great Oxendon sits on the A508 between Clipston and Market Harborough, which puts The George almost exactly on the route you will already be driving. It is a village dining pub with rooms, and it is the closest thing in the immediate area to a restaurant rather than a pub that serves food.

That makes it the sensible booking for a birthday or an anniversary within the stay, or for the night when half the party has come from Northampton and you want to meet in the middle. Book for weekend evenings.

3. Farndon Fields Farmers’ Kitchen, Market Harborough

Farndon Fields is a working farm shop on the edge of Market Harborough with a kitchen attached, and it does two jobs on one stop. Breakfast and lunch are the strength, and the butchery and produce counters are where most self-catering guests do their proper shop.

For a group cooking at the house this is the single most useful address on the list. Buy the meat for the BBQ here rather than at a supermarket, and the outdoor kitchen at The Barn does the rest.

4. Rocksalt Bistro, Market Harborough

An independent bistro in the town centre, and the one guests most often name when they want dinner that feels like an occasion without driving to Leicester or Northampton. It is town-centre parking, so factor that in on a Saturday.

Market Harborough is about ten minutes from Clipston, which makes an evening here entirely straightforward if someone is driving. Book ahead; the independents in this town are small rooms and they fill.

5. Bowden Stores, Great Bowden

Great Bowden is the village immediately north-east of Market Harborough, and Bowden Stores is the sort of village shop-and-kitchen that has become rare. It suits a lazy breakfast or a light lunch rather than a full dinner.

Pair it with a walk. The village itself is worth ten minutes of wandering and it is a short hop from the town if you are already there for the market.

6. Mortons of Gilmorton

Gilmorton is over the Leicestershire border to the north-west, so this is the longest drive on the list and the one to save for a night when you want to make an outing of it rather than grab dinner.

It is worth knowing about if you have a larger group and the closer options are full, which does happen on summer Saturdays and over bank holidays.

How far each place is from The Barn

Opening hours and menus change, particularly at village pubs outside the summer, so ring before you set off rather than trusting a listing. None of these places is large enough to absorb an unbooked group of eight on a Saturday.

Places to eat in Market Harborough

Market Harborough is the practical answer to almost every catering question on a stay here. It is about ten minutes from Clipston, it has the independents and the chains, and it has the supermarkets when you have simply run out of milk.

The town runs markets on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, which is the best moment to shop for a group. Waitrose, Tesco, Aldi and an M&S Foodhall are all there for the ordinary stuff, and Farndon Fields on the edge of town covers meat and produce properly.

Sunday lunch near Market Harborough

Sunday lunch is the meal most worth booking in this part of the country, and the one most often left too late. The village dining pubs run a single sitting pattern in practice: they fill from about midday and the kitchen stops when the roasts run out.

The George at Great Oxendon and the Bulls Head in Clipston are the two closest options, and both take bookings. If you are eight people, ring on the Thursday rather than the Saturday. Arriving hopefully at one o’clock on a Sunday with a group that size is how people end up in a supermarket car park eating sandwiches.

Where to stay near these restaurants

The Barn sits on the 14 Acres estate at Clipston, sleeps 8 across four bedrooms, and has the two things that matter for a food-led stay: a kitchen big enough for a group to cook in together, and a pub within walking distance for the night nobody wants to.

Market Harborough is ten minutes for the shops and the restaurants. For a smaller party the family cottage in Northamptonshire works the same way at a smaller scale, and the three Clipston properties together take up to 19 guests if you are catering for a bigger celebration.

More to explore

• Things to do in Market Harborough, ten minutes from the door.
• The history of Clipston, the village around the pub.
• Kelmarsh Hall, ten minutes south with a tearoom.
• Things to do in Northamptonshire, for the rest of the stay.
• Large cottage near Market Harborough, sleeping 8.

The Barn at Clipston: a kitchen worth cooking in

A converted country barn on the 14 Acres estate, sleeping 8 across four bedrooms, with a 10-metre glass wall onto a private garden, a covered dining terrace with a gas BBQ, and a kitchen built for a group cooking together.

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