retiredmartin

Reader “Dave” asks what places I’m looking forward to revisiting in the UK, without the pressure of completing the Guide.

Well, North Devon for a start, and a first trip to Lundy Island, whose pub might even make the GBG (says Ed).

The end of July saw a return to Ilfracombe for an elusive tick and one of the best harbours in the country.

I fell for Ilfracombe in the Summer of 2020, when for a brief time we forgot all about Covid before it roared back a month later.

Back then us tickers greedily took what we could get as pubs crept back to life; I even marked as pink a cream tea in a cask-less Ilfracombe tick.

“Open from noon in summer” says What Pub of Second Stage. Obviously summer doesn’t include July, as every time I phoned I was told “we open at 5pm tonight“.

No obvious social media presence, just a lively local (rather than a theatre bar as I’d guessed), so lively I felt a but too scared to take a photo, so here’s one off t’internet.

You get the idea.

BRAPA will love it, and to be honest the local “Thirst of Many” was a cool, rich NBSS 3 which put it in the top half of Devonian GBG pubs that month.

Just as well it was good; the plant pots were a bit too high to reach up and tip the beer;

Shame my main recollection was the Landlady shouting “NO, you CAN’T just come in and use the loo” to a desperate looking bloke (not BRAPA).

I know it’s cheeky not to buy something, but it just cast a pall over what was a happy pub, and stood in sharp contrast with the attitude in the rather more upmarket foody pub in Calstock the week ago.

And you try and find a public loo in Ilfracombe. I’ll wait…