retiredmartin

After what washed-up pop stars call “a hiatus”, it’s back to “Half A Dozen Pubs In Every County“, though down to the Cost of Living Crisis/Shrinkflation you only get five from me and pick one yourself.

Glamorgan is a vast county of Brains,

beaches,

and bottomless brunches.

I was tempted to include the Roost, my last Glamorgan tick when I finished the Guide in ’22, but I reckon these five are more your style.

1. Porthcawl – The Lorelei Hotel

Ah, the low-key Welsh seaside town, the Hunstanton of Wales, with the Lorelei your low-key hotel with incorrect opening hours on the Website but redemption on the bar and amongst the joyous, jovial visitors.

Shame I’d already ordered the Rhymney.

“A series of four pint jugs were being brought up from the cellar. Some looked suspiciously like Carling, but the red triangle on the glasses across the way told a fuller story.”

I shall have to go back, if only for the loos.

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2. Monknash – Plough & Harrow

No Bass in Porthcawl, but I DID get flat Bass in Glamorgan a year later.

The Plough and Harrow is one of those wondrous Welsh dining pubs that dominated the Good Pub Guide for decades, though popping in and out of the GBG.

A gorgeous old one-roomer where the Bass pump was nearly obscured on the bar, but not quite.

“Ten diet coke drinking diners munched fish and chips unobtrusively while I stared longingly at my amber marvel.”

“It wasn’t quite Bath Star, but a flat and rich NBSS 3.5 put it in the Top 100 Bass pubs, and the Guvnor told me he gets the Bass Old Boys in at 4pm every night to drink their statutory three pints, which’ll do for me.“

Great and unexpected outside loos, too.

It deserves a point deduction for the “Pretend it’s 1995” note on a board charging £13.50 for sausage and mash, mind.

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3. Cardiff – The Romilly

Tough one, this. You MUST have one Brain pub in your list, but the pubs have been those old Brains pubs had been neutered by opening out and pink food and a lack of turnover has diminished the Bitter and SA over the years.

At least the visit to the Romilly will give you a walk past the castle and Sophia Gardens and the posh suburbs,

The interior is pubby but plain, the barperson wonderfully cheery.  Four in at Welsh tea time (6pm) discussing cirrhosis of the hair. “I’ve tried every shampoo”.

One of my last experiences of the dreaded COVID temperature check; ah, the memories !

Back in Aldershot that January, Maltmeister had commented (double) negatively on the state of my spectacles. Perhaps Malt had told the lady, as she offered to clean my glasses with the special pub solution (possibly gin).

She thus became the ONLY person, other than my Mum, to clean my glasses for me, and therefore earns a place on this list. The beer was good, too.

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4. Mumbles – Pilot

OK, this is the undisputed classic on the list, a stiff but rewarding 3 mile hike from Swansea,

to one of the great allrounders, the Express or Fagans of Wales, lively but classy, like Mrs RM.

Yes, Bass still at the top.

A Top 20 Bass, the only question is whether you have an ice cream from Joe’s before or after your pint.

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5. Glynneath – Dinas Rock Inn

A pub in the Valleys, somewhere near, but not in, Merthyr Tydfil is part of the Glamorgan experience.

Glynneath is at the approach to Waterfalls Country,

and is a joy of simplicity and irreverence,

though writing this now I can only remember Old Boy(o)s talking about medical ailments.

“I love the pub. They’re friendly, acknowledge me on entry and departure, and acknowledge my pathetic attempts to enhance their Sunday lunchtime as we note the rush of motorbikes past the window.”

One beer (Evan Evans), very decent, and a great welcome in a beautiful part of a beautiful country. I’ll take that over a beer exhibition any day.

But I’m sure you can do better for the sixth.