October 2025. Matlock.
Your £10.15 day return to Matlock from Sheff gives you an hour and six minutes, which is just enough time to tick your new GBG entry, consider how pretty England is in The Fall*,
wonder if there’s a bar in that castle on that hill,
leaving all of 28 minutes to add a bonus pub before testing the toilet facilities on EMR.
Matlock is unexpectedly quiet, and the Thorn Tree and GBG micros (in red) up the hill don’t open till 4pm, so my best option is just through lovely Hall Leys Park and the grand houses of Knowleston Place,
where the Red Lion (top) greets you with the allure of a civilised small hotel bar.
On my ticking visit in the heart of COVID “table service” nonsense I wasn’t even allowed to view the pumps, and ended up with a sour beer from the onsite Moot brewery.
This time, I ignore the whiny sound of the new Taylor Swift (all of it) and stride purposefully to the bar without homebrew and join the Old Boys in pullovers on Bass in a comfy bar.
It may be the young hipsters who are taking the red triangle to the top of the cask charts, but it’s old fellas who are drinking it at 2:30pm on a Monday in hotel bars.
If only it was great Bass, But it’s not. Too foamy, a little bit of diacetyl ?
Still, it improves just enough for me to wonder if I’ve been a bit harsh on this, and the Remarkable Hare as well. CAMRA will be horrified to learn that your opinion on a beer can change over the course of a pint, but then CAMRA allow, nay encourage, something called half-pint drinking, and goodness knows how that messes up the the taste of beer.
*America – Autumn
retiredmartin 
Half pint drinking? What is this madness!!! I do like the Red Lion as probably the only pubby pub in the main bit of Matlock. Thorn Tree is great but a big hike up that hill!!!
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I like that climb ! Not much use if the pubs don’t open for another hour and a half !
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If people weren’t so reluctant to climb yon hill, perhaps the pub would open earlier.
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“October 2025. Matlock.”
(looks at pic above)
A pub called the Red Lion? Who woulda thunk it? 😉
“gives you an hour and six minutes, which is just enough time to tick your new GBG entry”
Whatever happened to quaffing a pint in under four minutes or some such in order to make the train in London?
“wonder if there’s a bar in that castle on that hill,”
If I look at it closely, I can see some French knights (kannigets) peering over the battlements.
“On my ticking visit in the heart of COVID “table service” nonsense I wasn’t even allowed to view the pumps, and ended up with a sour beer from the onsite Moot brewery.”
I shudder just to think about those trying times.
“and stride purposefully to the bar without homebrew and join the Old Boys in pullovers on Bass in a comfy bar.”
Yay. Complete turnaround that.
“but then CAMRA allow, nay encourage, something called half-pint drinking, and goodness knows how that messes up the the taste of beer.”
It’s a fine balance between sipping, quaffing and savouring.
“*America – Autumn”
Pfft. There was a major company over here who was thinking of doing a pumpkin flavoured antacid. They were going to call it “au-tums”. 😇
Cheers
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The best way to get from Sheff to Matlock is the X17, the bus fare cap applies so its cheap as chips and takes you through some lovely countryside on the way
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A bus ? Do you read this blog !
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Three months ago I learnt that the worst way to go through Matlock is on the TP bus, cheaper than chips with a bus pass but OVER TWO HOURS from Derby to Buxton without a lavatory – and I heard with dread that it used to run all the way to Manchester !
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Oh my !
I (accidentally) took the bus home (almost) from Sheffield station today. It took over an hour for a journey I walk in 30 minutes. Jolting stops every 100 yards, inability to pay without speaking to the driver. Trams every time.
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Trams every time indeed. Being only in the centre I didn’t use them on my two Manchester days last week but it was reassuring seeing so many of them.
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