Oh, come on, what would you have come up with ?
It’s certainly in a magical location, with a view across the Moray Firth to Cromarty and the start of the UK’s biggest GBG desert (next Guide stop John O’ Groats).
Charlie Chaplin used to come here on holiday. Sadly his NBSS scores for the 80/ at the Newton Hotel aren’t as well documented as Norman Wisdom’s views on the Okells in Douglas.
I started at the beach, which looked better in black and white.
It’s not a posh resort, probably more akin to Gravesend than Whitstable, but as you’ll know Gravesend was good enough for Pocahontas.
The narrow rows of housing that make up Fishertown are the highlight, gentrification of a sort, while the town centre suffers in comparison.
There’s some gems among the boarded up stores and vape shops.
And any town good enough for Mark E Smith and Mr Clarke is good enough for me.
I spent an hour examining old graveyards and older football grounds, mystified at how a town of 10,000 supports such a vast B & B trade.
Or perhaps it doesn’t. I guess people just come to visit the half dozen pet shop.
If anyone has stayed in the Cuir Air Arms, please let us know.
Then I stumbled on this place, which seems to have provided the inspiration for a certain Manchester pub.
No idea what it is now. Someone will.
Which leaves us with the GBG Bandstand, the “Real Ale Bar” of the smart looking Braeval Hotel.
With massive good fortune, I’d just missed their equally massive beer festival.
And I’d also turned up at the quiet time. “Come at 4.30 and it’ll be rammed“. What can people possibly be doing that’s more important than drinking these ales ?
Because I should really have been on Orkney, RIGHT THEN, I went for Scapa Special which was cool and rich, an impressive 3.5. The Bon Accord of the north.
The bar staff were young, cheerful and chatty, and although they had “Galway Girl” playing, it was the one by Steve Earle, not Ed.
And you can be there on the train from Waterbeach in 10:35 hours. Why isn’t it packed ?
“And you can be there on the train from Waterbeach in 10:35 hours”
I’ve just noticed that for Waterbeach the 1979 GBG has the Star, “Excellent old pub, recently modernised” with IPA on handpull and Abbot on gravity.
I’m sure the Abbot drank well on gravity.
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The Star was a terrace pub near the station, lasted till just before my drinking starred. No chance of citrusy beer!
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Well at least your visit didn’t have the same finale as Pocahontas’s to Gravesend.
Tilda is probably a regular in the Cuir Air Arms, so expect a left field film about it any year now.
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Grief. Tilda Swinton, the ACTUAL white witch of Narnia lives in Nairn. Wow.
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Nairn is indeed noted for its sunshine and micro climate. Never seen that Norway beer on the pumps- at 8% I would have expected you have tried it on our behalf.
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In most other pubs I’d have said I’m saving it for BRAPA visit but I sense turnover a bit quicker here.
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Pubmeister,
Nor way would Martin have an 8%er if he was driving.
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Joking (I think).
Just for the record I tipped most of that beer down the urinal, which was a shame as it wasn’t the usual rubbish I was getting used to in Tayside and Fife at Easter.
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Charlie Chaplin a big Bass fan…
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– as were a few other entertainers.
Maybe Alfie Bass ( 1916 – 1987 )
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