ACROSS THE BARRAGE TO PENARTH

August 2026. Cardiff to Penarth.

I left you pondering which crafty pub co. ran this futuristic looking diner facing the Welsh Senedd on Cardiff Bay,

and the answer, of course, was Sam Smiths.

The Waterguard (which was very quiet) looks rather older from the front, lying next to the Norwegian Church,

now very much a place of worship of waffles.

And then you’re on the walk across the bay to Penarth, a mile of skate parks and Roald Dahl.

Remember kids, jumping in the water is Dandre’s,

Never do this !!!!

It’s a popular walk across the Bay, rewarded with Joe’s ice cream at the Barrage.

Chocolate crunch and cherry amarin, since you ask so politely. Joe’s is the best.

Mrs RM needs that sugar rush, as we’ve missed the bus back into Cardiff by 2 minutes and she has to walk uphill to the station, which does her feet no good at all.

So she has no interest in Penarth’s grand architecture or coloured terraces,

but does need a long sit down in my new GBG entry next to the station.

The Railway Hotel looks a significant landmark in Penarth, and clearly you can get in the Beer Guide in 2026 with a fairly plain (not my description) cask range, as long as it’s as GOOD as this Proper Job.

Sprawling, plain, but comfy,

with just enough local interest on the walls.

Everything, from lounge to menu, shouts “Stonegate”, though the skittle alley in the livelier public bar adds a bit of character.

Using skittle alley scoreboards for puerile comments should be a hanging offence.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

9 thoughts on “ACROSS THE BARRAGE TO PENARTH”

  1. Looks like a solid line up to me. I went into an excellent GBG regular pub near me, largely supplied by Thornbridge for cask. I asked for Lord Marples. Oh no, not in the summer but we have got 4 pale ales on cask, plus Black Sheep. They were kind enough to bring samples of all 4 to the table for the old gentleman to try.

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  3. From that lineup, Proper Job for me, but preferably not in one of those stupid glasses.
    Shame the Norwegian Church isn’t a church any more but I suppose there aren’t enough Norwegians to sustain it.
    Brunost is wonderful. Fiendishly expensive though. Not sure I’d wreck it with jam.
    Writing this in the Thule, Lerwick’s Elvis Costello theme pub, listening to the late, lamented Dolly. What a wretchedly bad song Islands in the Stream was and how wonderful was Jolene? Time to go back and listen to the Trio albums again and research some Dolly deep cuts.

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    1. I love those Proper Job glasses !

      Dolly Parton seems a wonderful human being, and very funny, but I can’t name a lot of her actual songs. I loved that first Trio album from 1987, but I was a bit obssessed with 70s Emmylou and late 60s Linda at the time. Yes, deep cuts to be explored.

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    2. I had a Proper Job in one of those glasses three hours ago in my fourth Penkridge pub, the White Hart which has two cask beers on again and appears to be doing well at last.
      Just before then ( getting back on the topic of Wales ) I might have had a Ffelinfoel Llanelli DU ( maybe Double Unicorn ) in the Horse and Jockey but should have known better than assume a BCA TV screen represents what cask beers are CURRENTLY available or that the barman would have any idea of what was on.
      I greatly appreciated the Boat, Cross Keys and Star after walking from Stafford and forgetting that the heatwaves having finished didn’t mean that it isn’t still far too hot.

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      1. The word “du” in Welsh is their word for black, so Llanelli Du (pronounced “dee”, just to confuse the English) would be Ffelinfoel’s stout.

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      2. Thanks Will. That reminds me of what I saw five months ago in Carmarthen where, unlike Llanelli, there’s no shortage of cask beer.

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      3. Will, I’ve now realised that if the screen had correctly shown “Ffelinfoel Llanelli Du”, instead of “DU”, I might have worked it out from remembering Aberystwyth’s Yr Hen Lew Du where as the Black Lion I’ve drunk Banks’s a few times since 1972.
        Bar staff invariably assume if you can’t have what you want you’ll have something else and the “Do you want a pale ?” as I was leaving indicates how clueless that barman was.

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