retiredmartin

May 2026. Kirkstall. Leeds.

We’d managed 2 _^1/4 miles from the start of our Cask Camino before we called it a day due to holes in Mrs RM’s shoes (Neil not Traffic version), but in fairness we clocked up a few steps that day;

972.9 calories is a couple of pints and a pork pie, which we sought out at the closest pub.

The Kirskstall Bridge is slightly off the canal path, so it was imperative we retraced our steps to the very pont where we left it afterwards. No-one wants to be Ffyona Campbell* and short-cut their way to glory.

It lacks a distinctive pub sign; I guess those gates do the trick.

First (re)visit since I started the blog, just a bit too far out on the walk from Leeds station to the Brudenell.

Not quite as ornate as the Cardigan Arms, but that one had disappointed me a bit with cask quality of late.

Would this Kirkstall Brewery star do better ?

At the bar, a pint of the bellwether Three Swords had been sent back with “black bits” in it.

Mrs RM left me with complex instructions about soda (or was it tonic ?) water and set off down steep steps to the garden by the Aire.

There’s been some intelligent writing about the Leeds scene recently (Pellicle here), the gist of which seems to a perceived dominance of Kirkstall Brewing to the exclusion of free houses.

Dunno about that, but Kirkstall do pubs very well. The newlly re-opened Vic & Family might be my Pub of the Year.

OK, they can look a bit samey,

but there’s plenty of small, modern bars in commercial Leeds, surely ? And the Brudenell itself is a classic of the Social Club genre.

Too hot to inside Kirkstall Bridge gazing at old Bass mirrors today (US readers should note that the 1st day of June brought the end, not the start, of English Summer), though that heat took its toll on the pale Ascension, lacking the coolness and crispness cask needs to compete with the Virtuous keg most other folk were drinking.

But having been told the Three Swords had “black bits” floating in it, I felt duty bound to try a pint from a fresh barrel, and that had all the virtues the Ascencion lacked (4, Very Good). Cask ale lottery, innit ?

Note to self : Two pints in half an hour on a hot day is not a good way to break a walk.

Thank goodness they built that Kirkstall Forge station 10 minutes away.

*_{Never trust anyone born in Totnes}