Pack o' Cards, Combe Martin, Devon

In 1690 one George Ley, teacher and "overseer to the poor", had a big win at cards, so paid tribute to lady luck with a card-themed tavern measuring 52ft x 52ft (the number of cards in a pack), four floors representing the four suits, and the 13 doors per floor for the cards in a suit. He then went one step further – and built the whole thing to look like a giant house of cards.
• High Street, 01271 882300, packocards.co.uk

The Red Lion, Avebury, Wiltshire

History dating back to 1690 is small beer for the owners of the Red Lion. This pretty thatched inn sits at the centre of a Neolithic stone circle that's thought to date back to 2500BC, around the time Stonehenge was taking shape. It's also, like so many old pubs, a bit of a magnet for ghosts, with the glassed-over well that serves as a bar table now the regular haunting ground for Florrie, a rather picky spirit who flings pepper pots (but only at bearded patrons, for some reason).
• High Street, 01672 539266, red-lion-pub-avebury.co.uk

Ye Olde Mitre, Hatton Garden, London

In the 1970s the London Evening Standard's pub guide ran a competition: one of the entries in the guide was fictitious – could the readers guess which? When the readers' replies came in, most had plumped for the decidedly non-fictional Ye Olde Mitre in London. It's easy to see why. It's so neatly hidden, down an alleyway off Hatton Garden, that many locals have never heard of it. The pub was built for servants at the Palace of the Bishops of Ely, which once stood nearby, and so, technically, it's in Cambridgeshire (leading to huge police confusion when a pair of jewel thieves holed up there after a raid). In the snug is the trunk of a cherry tree that Queen Elizabeth I apparently once danced around.
• 1 Ely Court, EC1, 020-7405 4751, fullers.co.uk

Mermaid Inn Rye, East Sussex

With a good claim to being Britain's Most Haunted pub, the Mermaid is less a drinking place and more a kind of drop-in centre for spirits, where poltergeists often outnumber paying punters. At the last count, the ghostly cast contained two separate pairs of duellists, a couple who sit on the end of guests' beds, the obligatory Grey Lady, countless spirits smugglers and a dead servant girl or two.
• Mermaid Street, 01797 223065, mermaidinn.com

Pilchard Inn, Burgh Island, Devon

Smugglers also haunt the Pilchard Inn on Burgh Island. And as it's cut off from the south Devon mainland twice a day, getting there is half the fun: a big "sea tractor" runs between the mainland and the island's other drinking den, the art deco Burgh Island Hotel (once a favourite of Noël Coward).
• 01548 810514, burghisland.com/pilchard.html

The Old Forge, Knoydart, Highland

For sheer bloody inaccessibility, nothing beats the Old Forge in Inverie, on Scotland's wild west coast. With no roads in the area you're faced with the choice between a seven-mile sea crossing or an 18-mile hike over the hills and glens. Here, you can enjoy a warm welcome, the freshest local produce, and a good range of whiskies, before the three-hour walk back.
• 01687 462267, theoldforge.co.uk

Canal House Bar, Nottingham

Readers who are prone to seasickness might prefer a waterside pint in the Canal House, which has part of the local canal actually running through it. It's a favourite for those classic British summer days, when you can enjoy a waterside pint while sheltering from the rain and wind, and it's not unusual to see a rather smug canal-boat owner or two pull up right inside the bar.
• 48-52 Canal Street, 0115-822 5317, canalhousebar.co.uk

More droll drinking dens …

The King & Queen (023-8045 4247, thekingandqueenpub.co.uk) on the high street in Hamble, near Southampton, has its very own self-service launderette, while at The London Inn (01822 853567, londoninnhorrabridge.com) on Station Road, Horrabridge, Devon licensee Heidi Lenderyou lives up to her name with a 500-book lending library. And if you are the pugilistic type you may like to try the Royal Oak (029-2047 3984, theroyaloakcardiff.co.uk) at 200 Broadway in Cardiff; this pub was once the training ground of the legendary Jim Driscoll, a Welsh featherweight whose funeral in 1925 drew a crowd of 100,000 onto the streets of the city.

Mat Osman, editor of lecool.com