IT was almost 25 years ago, on a very hot summer Sunday, that I first stumbled into the Abbey Inn.

Lying in the shadow of the ruins of Byland Abbey, near Coxwold, it was a welcome haven after a sweaty and dusty walk through the rolling hills on the southernmost edge of the North York Moors.

The inn had a bit of a reputation in those days for being particularly accommodating to those in search of a pint after normal drinking hours. Run by the late and redoubtable Elsie Bush, it proved to be so that sunny Sunday at about 4pm. Not that Elsie deliberately set out to break the law. It was just that the pub was a sideline to the main business of running the farm and Elsie was far too busy to worry about the niceties of the Licensing Act.

As I recall the bar was Elsie's front parlour. The only clue to the fact this was also a establishment licensed for the sale of alcohol was the single barrel of beer in a corner of the room.From behind a curtain separating this room for the rest of the inn Elsie would emerge to pour a pint and then disappear back behind the curtain to tend to her chickens and other livestock. It was certainly a rather different country inn, if refreshing in its own way.

Today, the Abbey Inn still has a bit of a reputation but it a rather different one. It was turned into a more conventional country inn on its sale after Mrs Bush's death and the present owners, Martin and Jane Nordli, have developed a reputation for fine food served in the most beautiful of surroundings.

The exterior benefits from its setting next to the skeletal remains for the Cistercian abbey. If you fancy a romantic dinner for two, book one of the inn's tables which overlook the floodlit ruins. It takes a lot of beating.

For a more prosaic occasion the other tables are just as attractive. The inn has a number of character-filled stone-flagged and walled rooms taking between four and a dozen tables with the bar acting as a central point. The menu is chalked up on the wall opposite and starters and main courses are ordered here before diners are escorted to their tables.

On a recent bank holiday Monday lunchtime we had booked for about 2pm which was about last food orders that day. Because everything is cooked freshly to ordered there is a risk that popular dishes get scrubbed off that board and so it proved with the lamb shank and the Barnsley chop.

So we settled for two steaks - a peppered ribeye with chutney (£11.95) for Sylvia and a sirloin with mustard sauce (£12.95)for me. They were preceded by a bowl of celery and leek soup (£4.90) and a smoked bacon and mozzarella salad (£6) and another feature of the Abbey Inn - its bread which comes by the half loaf and loads of butter. It's almost a starter on its own.

Both starters proper were good, the soup full of leeky flavour and the salad a warm combination of watercress, melting cheese and slightly crunchy bacon. The steaks were also well cooked to the requested degree of pinky redness and the accompanying vegetables were hot and plentiful.

Service is youthful but prompt and efficient with Martin Nordli keep an eye on progress from behind the bar and elsewhere.

With coffees but excluding drinks, the bill came to well under £40. Decent value considering the special surroundings, the warmth of the welcome on a busy bank holiday and the quality of the food.

We're not sure what Elsie Bush would have made of it but it certainly is still a remarkable North Yorkshire inn - if for very different reasons a quarter of a century years ago.

* For those who wish to dine and make a night of it, the Abbey Inn has three individually-furnished and well-appointed bedrooms, two of which have those romantic views of the abbey..