Don’t oversell your blog posts, folks.
Unless you’ve got something really important to say like the availability of flat Bass in a proper pub, anyway.
One night in Kelso, as the song from Chess nearly went. Mrs RM gets to stay in “reasonably smart hotels” with her job, which comes as a bit of a shock to me.
Ednam House is the sort of place that survives on Old Boys in plus fours, anglers, and couples escaping Galashiels on honeymoon.
It was much too posh for me. I’ve been in plainer National Trust properties*.
I expect it’ll be a Brunning & Price by 2022; for now the public bar had the beer range of your average Travelodge, and malts for a tenner, so we saved our pennies.
The rain from Malta had followed us up to Kelso,
but it somehow made the market square look a bit Italian and magical.
Even Rutherfords was trying to be continental by tempting us to sit outside on a balmy February Sunday evening.
We weren’t fooled. Inside it was pretty wonderful, particularly if you like Nemo (top), red paint, and gin on draught. Mrs RM did.
They even had test tubes to show you the colours of the drinks. Test tubes !
We’d had a talk about the evening before hand and agreed that Mrs RM would take it easy as she had some sort of big “launch” the next day. “Yeah right“, as the kids say.
Here’s Mrs RM’s large gin. We were oblivious to the chap on fire at the bar.
“Smoking Man“, as no doubt Si would call him, brought some life, and a huge friendly dog that took a liking to my new glasses.
It’s a tiny place, but within 20 minutes a fairly sedate middle-class micro had become a lively boozer, which just goes to show.
Looking at the Guide I see I gave Rutherfords a rare 3 ticks, meaning beer NBSS 4 or better. So Edinburgh CAMRA do know what they’re doing, as of course does Mr Rutherford. Fyne Blizzard and Stewart Chocolate Stout, for those taking notes; served flat in thick glasses.
So much gin had been consumed by the end that I think even Trepanning (look it up) might have seemed a good idea.
Luckily Mrs RM had me to steer her safely to food. tbc…
*My average time spent in a National Trust property is 2.5 minutes.
Trepanning is the currently recommended technique for persuading people to vote for the Revitalisation Project. The proposals, if passed, may change this.
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Interesting. I knew Trepanning was required prior to any attempt to enjoy Donnington ales.
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There are historical records which suggest Donninton Ales may pre-date trepanning by several millenia. In fact trepanning might have been invented to try and get rid of the taste.
So, how does it feel to have visited all of Scotland’s micros?
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I’m waiting for the CAMRA certificate, but in the meantime I’m reporting them to Herne for breaking the rules about excessive fun in micros.
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That’s why nobody has been allowed to open a second one. Failed experiment.
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Fun of course has now been outlawed north of the border by the SNP government 😛
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I remember “fun”. 1983, I think it was.
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The test tubes give that place a weird science lab feel.
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“It was much too posh for me.”
Fancy indeed!
“but it somehow made the market square look a bit Italian and magical.”
(nods)
“Test tubes !”
Beats jam jars I guess. 🙂
“Spontaneous combustion is common in the Borders”
That would explain the need for the constant drizzle. 😉
“Fyne Blizzard and Stewart Chocolate Stout”
Was that the chocolate orange stout as seen in the top left of the photo with the Gin on draught?
As for the Trepanning… sheesh!
(you’d have to have a hole in your head to want to do that!) LOL
Cheers
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It was that oddly sounding stout, Russ. Better than it sounds.
You should copyright that Trepanning joke.
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” Don’t oversell your blog posts, folks.”
You do realise that constitutes floccinaucinihilipilification ?
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Is that the latest Brewdog beer?
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BrewDog make beer ?
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They ran out of other things to do
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Apparently they add that to the water in the West Midlands to prevent tooth decay.
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I’m assuming Kelso is THE hotbed of Scottish rugby? Didn’t Bill McLaren regularly talk about “the big farmer from Kelso?” Anyway looks like a cracking pub albeit not very Scottish!
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Rugby certainly, and a racecourse. More Southwell than Uttoxeter though !
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I can imagine! Great post 👍
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At least you didn’t turn in to the drive of Floors Castle by mistake thinking it was your hotel 😉
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Easy mistake to make when your B&B isn’t on WhatPub.
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We still need to know though, did the Spoons reach Phil Collins?
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On its way…
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““Smoking Man“, as no doubt Si would call him” –So true! Based on your photos I’d say this one is among the nicer micropubs. I mean, if you’re stuck opening a pub in a little shop that used to sell shoes or something, you can hardly do better than what they’ve managed.
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