A Few Words About Us

Masham lies on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales and has the largest market square in Yorkshire, and the Bruce Arms has been part of the community for longer than anyone really knows. There is rumour that it is haunted.

We’re not quite sure how old the building is but it’s safe to say it’s Georgian, while the name of the pub is believed to come from Robert the Bruce; which is where it gets interesting because there are two different versions.

One claim is that he came from Normandy (as Robert the Brus) with Henry I around 1100, and by 1103 had acquired some or all of his family’s land in Yorkshire, which he then increased over the coming years.

The other version states that he was a Norman knight from Brus, a castle near Cherbourg, in France, who came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066; and as a rewarded for his efforts he was given several areas of land, known as manors, most of which were in Yorkshire.