Travellers to the city of Nottingham invariably find their way to this quaint old Inn which is carved into the rock and connected with the labyrinth of sandstone caves at the foot of Nottingham Castle. As its sign says, it truly is “Well known throughout the World”, but the very first question every visitor asks inevitably relates to how it came to have such an unusual name.
The answer to this lies in the date painted on the exterior walls of the Inn, that of 1189AD. This was the year of ascension to the throne of King Richard the First, known as Richard the Lionheart, and one of his first acts as King was to crusade against the Saracens who at that time occupied the Holy Land of Christian Religion. Nottingham Castle was a stronghold favoured by the King and legend has it that the brave Knights and men at arms who rallied to his call to fight in this Third Crusade, gathered at the Castle to rest before journeying to Jerusalem.
Legend also has it that these Crusaders stopped off at the Inn at the foot of the Castle for welcome refreshments – or perhaps more accurately, for ‘one for the road’. Given that in the Middle Ages, a ‘Trip’ was not a journey as such but rather a resting place where such a journey could be broken, it is understandable how the Inn came to be called ‘Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem’.
