retiredmartin

I’ll be honest and say that quite a few of the Beer Guide entries for North Wales are both unpronounceable and hard for me to pinpoint on a map. Llanrwst Yes, Llanfair Ffestiniog No. I’ll bet the Good Beer Guide has got the multiple Talybonts mixed up over the years.

We had to pass through Llanfair on our way Zipwire Titan, a series of 70mph rides through the old slate mines at better known Blaenau Ffestiniog, part of a huge investment in “adventure tourism”.  Blaenau itself looked a little becalmed in comparison.

I’ll spare you the details, but Mrs RM got stuck halfway down the first slide and had to be rescued by the handsome young well trained staff, possibly carrying a box of Milk Tray.

What Mrs RM really likes is decent beer, and that came in grey Llanfair‘s rambling village pub, where we just squeezed in before the wedding reception took it over.

Despite lots of friendly signs, the Pengwern Arms hardly looks like a pub, let alone a hotel, and the tangle of frontages will no doubt cause Simon much hilarity.

A good pattern was emerging in North-West Wales.  Cheerful Welsh-speaking folk, lots of them seated at unmodernised bars leaving decent real ale to the strange English beer tourists.  And decent rolls (Exhibit A – proper beef salad below), presumably nicked from the wedding reception.

QUIZ TIME – What’s on the beer mat ?

I like these village pubs a lot, and the beer here was very decent (NBSS 3).  This is what it was, helpfully in English as well.

Llanfair itself was as bucolic a setting as you could wish for,  perfect as a base for waterfall and sheep spotting. I settled for the sheep.