retiredmartin

OK, we’ve reached the end of the Scottish GBG chapters, and I have to say I’m a bit disappointed that more Perthshire pubs didn’t make a case for inclusion in that lovely chunk between the the central belt and Aberdeen which serves as your gateway to the Cairngorms and the lochs (I got that off the tourist brochure).

Bu then, perversely, I couldn’t narrow it down from six, so you might have to decide which of the half-dozen shouldn’t be on the list, if that makes sense.

Dunkeld – Perth Arms

I loved my night in Dunkeld, such great autumnal colours,

such innovative cuisine.

And the Perth Arms was everything you want as a visitor to a slightly touristy town on the Tay.

Football on the telly, locals on the Tennents.

The Landlady seemed pleased when I went for the local Strathbraan, “Ooh have you tried it” though happily I was spared tasters and CAMRA discounts.

Note those copper tables they love round here.

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Arbroath – The Lochlands

I skipped the discussion on craft v keg cask breathers at Dundee’s CAMRA Weekend (2019 edition) to take in football and smokies in Arbroath, probably the only of the 125,000 life members (“leeches”) to do that.

It’s a shabby but energising town (OK, bitingly cold), with a unique outdoor meeting of the Arbroath CAMRA sub-branch to agree that the Spoons would stay as the town’s GBG entry.

The Lochlands is where you need to go and plead that they put cask back on again,

as the pub is a boisterous joy and Arbroath deserves better than that JDW.

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Blair Atholl – Atholl Arms Hotel

I was keen to pick an ancient, rambling hotel with its own bar, the sort of place American tourists pay £120 a night for, and the Atholl is perfect. It’s even got its own little museum showing what life was like in, at a guess, December 1964.

The gentlefolk here are ensconced in their menus, choosing between haggis nachos and macaroni cheese (national dish), leaving a couple of Professional Drinkers at the bar, one of whom was discussing the relative merits of chickpeas V broad beans in curry and how he’d use his day off to explore the bar at the bowls club.

It’s the sort of chat you want at the bar, any bar, but rarely get in Scottish hotels.

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Blairgowrie – Stormont Arms

But you’ll get loads of banter in Blairgowrie, a friendly if shabby fruit growing town that almost no-one below Perth will have heard of.

The Stormont gets the nod over the venerable Ericht because a) the beer was slightly better and b) copper top tables,

and c) yellow warning tape on the seats (COVID, probably).

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Dundee – The Speedwell

Oh sorry, wrong pub.

Dundee was fun, the pipers greeting to CAMRA delegates from a former Chairman,

then sneaking out with Paul Mudge during the debate on cider definition to the Speedwell,

and the growing realisation we were trapped in those seats and weren’t getting to the famous toilets…

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Perth – Ye Olde Ship

I mean, what a lovely pub, hidden away in the centre of Scotland’s most underrated town (after Paisley, obvs).

A great allrounder, appealing as much to shoppers and office workers as Old Boys. A bit like that pub in a courtyard in Halifax.

Never mind the seating, it’s all about the people, and at lunchtime there was a Proper Pub mix of newspaper readers, Professional Drinkers and Ladies Who Lunch (on wine).

Unmissable in a city that’s gone craft since that CAMRA AGM, oddly.

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Oh, go on, pick another. But NOT this one..