Lucky lock-in No last orders for punters left adrift at Tan Hill Inn

"Do you want a shot?" asks Katy Sherrington from Durham, offering up a tiny glass of a pink liquid. Nobody is going anywhere at this point, so it would be rude not to.

- Robyn Vinter

At the Tan Hill Inn, Britain's highest pub, the snow is falling and the 30 people gathered inside know they are probably going to be stuck here for a couple of days. All through the pub here at the northernmost point in North Yorkshire the drinks are flowing and friends are being made.

An amber weather warning for snow is in place across the UK, with the Met Office advising the public only to make necessary journeys, with road closures, train and flight cancellations, and rural communities becoming cut off.

That is something the staff at the Tan Hill Inn, at 528-metres (1,732ft) above sea level, are used to. The pub has a history of what local people call "snow ins". In 2021, 61 punters who had come to watch an Oasis tribute band ended up being trapped here for three days.

So the staff are well prepared. The pub's electricity comes from a generator and there is enough food on hand for about a month.

"But hopefully it won't come to that," says Nicole Hayes, one of the bar staff, who has already done a number of phone interviews with the local and national media in the run-up to the weather warning, such is the reputation of the pub.

Earlier in the evening, her colleague Elle Applegarth anxiously looks out of the window, hoping it might still be possible to make an exit to go home and see her dog, Banana. Word comes through that the snow gates on the nearby A66 are to close at 10.30pm, which means anyone hoping to leave needs to do so soon or they are likely to be here for a couple of days, as the forecast is for the snow to only get worse.