A tasting-menu restaurant in an old cow barn at Vallum Farm on the Military Road above Hadrian's Wall — Cal Byerley cooking with Ian Waller from a Northumberland kitchen garden,…
La note
A small dining room cut into an old cow barn at Vallum Farm, a mile south of Hadrian's Wall on the long Roman road that crosses Northumberland. Cal Byerley, raised on a farm a short drive away, cooks an evening tasting in front of an open kitchen with his friend Ian Waller — quiet, regional cooking pulled together from the kitchen garden, the moor and the Tyne.
From the editors · Vedere House
Les particularités
Setting
Vallum Farm, Military Road, East Wallhouses NE18 0LL — on the B6318 between Newcastle and Hexham, a mile south of Hadrian's Wall
House
A converted cow barn — pale walls, exposed timber, a long angled window onto the stubble fields and the moor beyond
Kitchen
Cal Byerley & Ian Waller — friends and co-chefs since their time at *Forest Side* in Grasmere
Floor
Siân Byerley — operations manager and dining-room director
Cellar
Vanessa Stoltz, head sommelier — Alsatian, raised in vines, with six pairings drawn for the tasting
Format
Tasting menu only — full menu and Chef's Table at the kitchen pass; a shorter menu Wednesday and Thursday
Garden
An on-site kitchen garden at Vallum Farm — herbs, flowers and seasonal vegetables walked across to the kitchen
Country
Cal's family have farmed in Northumberland since 1805 — fish from the Tyne and Northumberland coast, lamb and game from the Cheviot foothills, herbs and flowers from the moor
Service
Wednesday to Friday dinner; Saturday lunch and dinner — closed Sunday to Tuesday
Best for
A long Northumberland evening from Newcastle (twenty miles east) or a slow lunch off Hadrian's Wall — Hexham and the Roman forts a short drive west
The Military Road runs west out of Newcastle along the line of Hadrian's Wall — a long, slow B-road through stone walls and stubble fields, the moor on one side and the Tyne in its valley on the other. East Wallhouses is a string of houses and a farm gate. The farm is Vallum Farm; the building is an old cow barn; the room inside is Pine. Cal Byerley grew up on a Northumberland farm in a family that has worked the land here since 1805, and trained in the kitchen of Forest Side in Grasmere — where he met Ian Waller, who cooks beside him now. Siân Byerley runs the floor.
“
The menus are designed to showcase the best of what Northumberland has to offer, changing with the seasons.
”
Cal Byerley & Ian Waller
The format is a single tasting, written in the morning from what has come in. Herbs, edible flowers and vegetables walk across from a kitchen garden; the rest is foraged from the moor and the woods along the Wall, or driven in from the Northumberland coast and the Tyne. A round loaf early on with marigolds and a wood-grilled rib in tomato; squid with cherry and kelp; scallop with rhubarb and rose geranium; John Dory with rapeseed and brassicas; fallow deer with blueberry and woodruff. Vanessa Stoltz draws six wines for the meal; Luke Riley behind the bar pours the lower-strength companion. The cooking is quiet — confident with the seasoning, careful with the plate, close to the country it was drawn from.
Pine opens Wednesday to Saturday only. Newcastle is twenty miles east, Hexham eight miles west; the Roman forts at Vindolanda and Housesteads are a short drive on along the Wall. Take the long way round either side and the meal becomes the right shape — a slow drive through Northumberland, an evening at the pass, a wide angled window onto the field.
Moments choisis
01
Two friends from the Forest Side
Cal Byerley grew up on a Northumberland farm in a family that has worked the land here since 1805. He met Ian Waller in the kitchen of *Forest Side* in Grasmere, and the two have cooked together since. Pine is the room they have built around that friendship — a single tasting menu, written in the morning from what has come in from the garden, the boats and the moor, and cooked in front of you across a low pass. *The menus are designed to showcase the best of what Northumberland has to offer*, the chefs have said, *changing with the seasons*.
02
A garden, a moor, a North Sea
The pantry begins behind the building. Herbs, edible flowers and seasonal vegetables come from a kitchen garden walked across from the dining-room door; the rest is foraged from the moor and the woods around the Wall, or driven in from the Northumberland coast and the Tyne. A single round of bread arrives early in the meal with a marigold-strewn salad and a wood-grilled rib in tomato; later, squid with cherry and kelp, scallop with rhubarb and rose geranium, John Dory with rapeseed and brassicas, fallow deer with blueberry and woodruff. The cooking is restrained, the seasoning sharp, the plates close to the country they were drawn from.
03
Above the Wall
The Military Road climbs west out of Newcastle along the line of Hadrian's Wall. East Wallhouses sits on it — a string of houses and a farm gate, the moor opening to the north, the Tyne sunk into its valley to the south. Two miles up the road is the missing Sycamore Gap, the most photographed tree in England before it was felled in 2023; behind the restaurant the walls and milecastles march toward Vindolanda and Housesteads. Pine is set deliberately into this country — an old cow barn at Vallum Farm, an open kitchen, a wide angled window onto the field. The room is the country, served back across the pass.
