With the ticking of the Strathcarron Hotel my GBG requirements fell to twelve. I thought there’d be LOADS of songs with twelve in them, but Cole Swindell was the obvious choice.
Dave “US Dave” Southworth tells me Cole is “the new Dylan“*, but I reckon his musical collaborator Shy Carter is the a superior capturer of the America zeitgeist. I imagine this video “Beer with my friends” could have been taken at the Town Hall Tavern in Minneapolis.
Back to the tour map.
Mrs RM had told the nice lady at the Strathcarron, half an hour from Plockton, we’d be there around 21:30 so PLEASE don’t turn the lights off, and we’d also arranged to park in their campsite for £13, but the relief to find the door open at 21:31 was palpable. Or certainly visible from Applecross.
You can see why we hadn’t wanted to get it done. The train service running past our campervan pitch is a bit limited.
It’s a great little pub. Small hotel, campsite, unfussy restaurant, on-site brewery, video jukebox, locals at the bar debating pencil sharpeners for left-handed folk, a classic collection of sporting photos on the wall.
A cheery young lady called Isla up from Partick for the summer served us two sparkling pints and then expertly stopped us drinking them when I told her where we’d parked (in the station car park rather than their car park).
We were just debating the least scary route to Applecross when Isla said “Can I join you ?”.
We’re so glad she did, she was intelligent and provocative and we enjoyed an hour of political debate and photos of Queenie, her adorable cat.
I come across a lot of young people in pubs, perhaps more than ever, and they’re always friendly and often chatty. Amidst all the gloom, the young give us hope for the future.
If they can come up with a way to repel Highland midges I’ll be even more grateful to them.
GBG check – twelve left, and tomorrow would bring one of the most remote pubs of the entire Guide.
*Dylan the rabbit off Magic Roundabout
retiredmartin 
Crikey, so close now .. this is getting proper exciting .. hopefully you’ll resist the urge of a Spice Girls track on your “penultimate tick” post
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No, I couldn’t resist that at all.
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Wot, no Chesney Hawkes?
You’re spoilt for choice once you’ve got into single figures.
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You’ve spoilt my one and only surprise, Mike.
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Very much looking forward to the Applecross report.
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It’s great, almost as good as the approach road. Christine took the better photos though so better ask her nicely for them.
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There’s another Dylan?
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Re: midges. I use a spray called Smidge, available from camping shops and who knows where else. It works. Not cheap though.
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Smidge, or Avon Skin so Soft – yes, really
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Just be tougher mentally. They didn’t bite me.
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I read somewhere that midges don’t like yeast. Given that I drink beer and eat Marmite, I always thought I’d be OK but recently they’ve been giving me gyp. Probably not enough yeast in Tennent’s. Never mind, off to Eyemouth in a couple of days, hopefully will get some proper beer. NB: Mrs B is allergic to yeast and the midges eat her alive.
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Are they still brewing their own beer at the Strathcarron? Red Cow and Golden Cow when I was in these parts in 2017. They supplied quite a few of the nearby pubs.
When I say nearby I mean within a 100 mile radius, of course. Nothing is nearby in the Highlands & Islands.
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It was the Golden Cow, I think; Red Cow in bottles. It was fine, but no Doom Bar (obvs). The night was memorable.
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I liked the Red Cow, whereas I didn’t like Skye Red. It’s not the style of the beer, it’s whether anyone is drinking it so that it hasn’t gone sour. Skye Red tended to be in pubs that didn’t really do Real Ale – think of it as the Highlands & Islands Doom Bar – whereas I think the guys at Strathcarron Brewery were more hands on with their sales, and made sure that the people they were selling it to were going to look after it right, and actually try to get their customers to drink it.
The Highlands & Islands Black Sheep, if you like.
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That’s a very intelligent assessment. I expect nothing less. Excellent Doom Bar v Black Sheep analogy. I’d like to go back to that Old Inn at Carbost and try the other beers.
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