The Butt and Oyster on the River Orwell

The Butt and Oyster is one of Suffolk’s favourite and most well known pubs. And it’s just yards from Onderneming, our fabulous Dutch barge moored at Pin Mill

Named after the part the pub played in the old oyster trade in Suffolk, The Butt and Oyster is part of the Deben Inns Group and typifies what they do so well. Great pub, great food and great beer. The Butt & Oyster is one of their two best locations (in my opinion, other opinions are available, but wrong)

They also have The Maybush at Waldringfield, near Woodbridge, which is my other favourite of theirs and nice and handy for our other Dutch Sailing Barge ‘Twee Gebroeders’. You can read all about the Maybush here

The Butt and Oyster is down the end of a tiny lane down a hill, leading to the equally tiny hamlet of Pin Mill, in Suffolk. There’s very little at Pin Mill; a sailing club, two boatyards, a scattering of houses, fabulous walks along the River Orwell, a ceramics workshop, some houseboats, our Dutch Sailing Barge Onderneming, and The Butt & Oyster. Oh, and some of the most breathtaking views in the country!

The Butt and Oyster sits right on the River Orwell, with the tide coming up to it’s feet at High Water. It’s a gorgeous old proper Suffolk pub, with barrels of (mostly) Adnams stacked up behind the bar, serving some of the best beer in the country (again, in my opinion, other opinions are available, but wrong)

It’s very much a mish-mash of lovely old wooden furniture and bare floorboards that could tell a tale or two I’m sure. They do have a number of tables with river views but these are very hard to get hold of. There’s plenty of seating outside overlooking the river too though, for the warmer weather.

They have an incredibly busy kitchen, dishing up some amazing seafood, as well as other pub favourites and all really reasonably priced.

This is very much Arthur Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazons’ Country too!

So do try the Butt and Oyster when you’re in the neighbourhood, or better still, book a break on Onderneming and you can try the pub a lot!