Ah, yes, the Northern Isles. I spent 30 years looking at that tiny section of the Beer Guide, contemplating overnight ferries from Aberdeen or Loganair flights from Edinburgh, those evocative pub names in Kirkwall calling me. But if I did those pubs in 2011, would I just need to go back a decade later ?… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 69 – NORTHERN ISLES
Tag: travel
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 67 – KINGDOM OF FIFE
Well, my spreadsheet says just “Fife“, but the GBG is insistent on the Kingdom, and the GBG is definitive when it comes to county names. It only took three trips up the A1 and over the Firth of Forth to tick Fife, a county most folks will only know from St Andrews and the chippy… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 67 – KINGDOM OF FIFE
OCTOBER ’24 STOCKTAKE + NOVEMBER PREVIEW
Any month that starts (in Lincoln) with Paul Mudge, Sheffield Hatter and the Southworths, and ends with Lizzy McAlpine singing “Soccer Practice” can’t all be bad, but in-between came three weeks of elderly parent traumas which saw Mrs RM and I confined to Waterbeach (again). Not all bad, but a house about 10 degrees too… Continue reading OCTOBER ’24 STOCKTAKE + NOVEMBER PREVIEW
Now THAT’S how to do a cheese and onion cob !
October 2024. Leicester. And this is the problem/joy of having completed the Guide. Before completion, you break a journey in Leicester, have a rushed weakest half in the new GBG tick, run back to the next train, plan how you’re going to do all four (4) West Midlands newbies before your gig when none (0)… Continue reading Now THAT’S how to do a cheese and onion cob !
HIGHGATE HILL
October 2024. Highgate. London. A snatched afternoon away from domestic stress into London on Wednesday afternoon had seen me rack up 3 pints in 90 minutes, which is exactly the right level of consumption to make you a) sleepy, b) in need of frequent loo stops and c) not much inclined to anything intellectual like… Continue reading HIGHGATE HILL
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY NO. 66 – HIGHLANDS AND WESTERN ISLES
Definitely not a “county”, more a random collection of tourist-friendly hills and lakes, overseen by a benevolent creature who occasionally emerges to pick inaccessible GBG entries out of a hat on the riverbank near Inverness. My first five picks will delight the tourist as much as the beer connoisseur. John O’Groats Brewery Tap Well, this… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY NO. 66 – HIGHLANDS AND WESTERN ISLES
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 65 – GREATER GLASGOW AND CLYDE VALLEY
Yes, get the spoiler in early. For most folk, Glasgow means two things. A nine (9) minute train to Paisley Gilmour Street’s cultural highlights, And curry. Oh, and a bloke with a traffic cone on his head. But some great pubs, too, and compared to the Scottish capital a bit easier to find them outside… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 65 – GREATER GLASGOW AND CLYDE VALLEY
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 64 – EDINBURGH AND THE LOTHIANS
A belated return to the celebrated (in North Korea) “Half a dozen pubs…” series, which I might finish by 22nd December. Talking of which, where will I be on the most important day of the year ? Obviously, somewhere I’ve never been before, but a few new pubs would be nice. What about Mid Calder… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 64 – EDINBURGH AND THE LOTHIANS
FROM LANGLEY MILL TO EASTWOOD
October 2024. Langley Mill. Sunday afternoon means rail trips to godforsaken East Midlands towns to tick micros. 40 minutes to Langley Mill, the station built especially to meet the needs of micro pubs in industrial Derbyshire and Notts, then a 35 (RM – 22) minute slog over the Erewash Canal, past the county border, stopping… Continue reading FROM LANGLEY MILL TO EASTWOOD
TOP 100 PUBS – THE MILLSTONE, STAMFORD
September 2024. Stamford. Unlike “up all-night BRAPA“, I take my time cross-checking the old to new GBG, colouring in maps, and compiling a long (long) list of pubs to be visited in GBG25 TY (ticking year). So I’d initially missed the fact we had a bran’ new entry in stunning Stamford, a great town with… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE MILLSTONE, STAMFORD
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