PORTPATRICK – THE QUIET BEFORE THE BORIS BRIDGE

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More holiday snaps from what felt like a forgotten corner of the UK, albeit one that will shortly see holidaymakers flocking in their millions to the Boris Bridge tentatively scheduled for early summer, which will make my ticking in Northern Ireland easier.

Portpatrick
Weird bridge
Portpatrick2
Photo: Gordon McKee (not me jumping high)

Portpatrick is one of a select band of places in Wigtownshire with real ale, according to the excellent local CAMRA magazine.

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From Ayrshire & Wigtown’s Full Pints

Most of those are in the GBG, and if you spent 3 days here you could cover the lot as a prophylactic against future Guide entry. But I’d come for the scenery*.

As you’ll know, the sun shines on the righteous blogger, and I enjoyed a glorious sunset.

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Less than a thousand souls here, plus few daytrippers from the heaving metropolis of Stranraer, with a gorgeous stretch of coast all to yourself.

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That’s pretty much it

I walked the bounds in about ten minutes, the low sun mucking up my arty shots of the St Patricks ruins.

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Bubbling streams

Best stick to the harbour, where the pubs are.

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Pubs, of a sort. The sort you get in slightly upmarket old fishing villages in West Wales and Eastern Scotland.

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Two cask pubs in a row
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Oooh, proper seating alert

The Crown is very pubby. Unfortunately that means the entire adult population, some wearing shorts, in March, sitting round the bar.

Sometimes I’ll try to get to the pumps; now I couldn’t be bothered.

“What cask, er, real ales have you got ?” I ask the cheery barperson.

“We’ve got Boff and Wallop on” I think she says.

“I’ll have Boff then”. That’s exactly how it went.

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Boff

It was really good, despite the imperfect glass. In fact ALL the beer I had in Dumfries and Galloway was good (NBSS 3) or better, so take that Fife.

The longer I was there, the more English accents I heard; perhaps they come for fishing, perhaps for castles, perhaps for deep-fried haggis. I hadn’t thought they might come for the beer.

And you wonder why I’m so desperate to get away from Cambridge each week ?

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*I’ve read this back twice and I sense it’s a bit suspect but without Russ to comment I can’t be sure.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

17 thoughts on “PORTPATRICK – THE QUIET BEFORE THE BORIS BRIDGE”

  2. Portpatrick has enjoyed a rejuvenation in recent times (as featured in an episode of Coast 28 Feb). The other pub there has also made several GBG appearances too. I
    must look out for Boff.

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  4. Isn’t “boff and wallop” yet more Alexanderese, along with “piffle-paffle whiffle-whaffle”?

    That bridge is no more likely to be built than watercannon would be sold on at a profit, IYAM.

    Not with a million tons of WWII munitions dumped between there and Ireland, anyway.

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    1. Apparently we’re now told that “bridge” is Boris speak for “tunnel”. Which, if it goes under Beaufort’s Dyke, would be something like 3 times as deep as the Channel Tunnel.

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      1. It would have to go deep enough beneath the dyke to withstand a potentially huge detonation too.

        It’s not serious, I don’t think.

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  5. “the Boris Bridge tentatively scheduled for early summer” – a futile attempt to keep our Kingdom United and as daft an idea as his Garden Bridge for London.

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