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Blod ventures north of the border and finds
some interesting watering holes.
It was on a Thursday Morning the gasman came
to call... no that’s not right! - I boarded the 07:35
train up to Edinburgh and three and half hours later arrived
at the Waverley station. Unfortunately I only had 40 minutes
before the Aberdeen train, so I didn’t have time to seek
out a real ale establishment.
The east coast route to Aberdeen is a scenic
route which takes you over the Firth of Forth, in site of
the road bridge, past St. Andrews and Carnoustie golf
courses onto Dundee and Montrose. I arrived in Aberdeen two
and half hours after departure and immediately rang my
friend Angus, and my main beef was, he was out.
After a walk down from the station I found the main street
called Union St. which most of the GBG pubs are dotted
around. My first evening was spent tracking down the
locations of the majority of the GBG
pubs and thankfully, since I was on Shanks’ they were all
relatively close together.
Under the Hammer
This is a wine bar styled pub close to the theatre. Dropping
down from street level to enter a newly decorated tiled
floored pub upon which small pine tables adorned with
chequered table cloths and candles reside, I approached the
bar that faced me. Three hand pumps displayed Ossian Ale, Deuchars
IPA and Butcombe
Bitter and torn between all three I decided on the Butcombe
which was fine, and listened to the background music of Pink
Floyd, very pleasant.
Cameron’s
(MA’s)
Just down the road was a little gem. A small pub with a
traditional oak panelled bar area, which has some
interesting ink drawings mounted on the wall had Belhaven
St. Andrews and Deuchars IPA on offer. I tried the Belhaven
which was fine at first but as I continued my pint I felt it
was borderline, shame really because it was a pleasant pub.
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Blue Lamp
This pub is en route to Old Aberdeen and is a basic students
type pub and can be spotted by, funnily enough, a big blue
lamp hanging outside. I entered towards the smokey bar to be
greeted by a myriad of keg fonts, but amongst the
advertisers glory I spied two handpulls bearing the names of
Timothy Taylors
Best and Deuchars IPA. I tried a pint of the TT’s, which
was excellent, and went to sit down in the cosy area away
from the bar. What a mistaka to a maka! I was accosted by a
guy who was an engineer from the oil rigs and his Canadian
rally driver girl friend who was out celebrating. As well as
supping pints, they were on double Canadian Club and
Southern Comfort (in one glass) chasers... I will say no
more.
The following day I continued my tour, pulling in:
The Prince of Wales
Don’t know what he was doing there, obviously forgot to
turn left on his way from Cornwall! Anyway, this was quite
an impressive pub with a bar about 6m long. A traditional
type pub with oak panelling and glazing and what was quite
amazing was, at 6pm in the evening it was absolutely packed.
What a selection of ales! I tried their own, Prince of Wales
Bitter (4.2%) brewed by Inveralmond
which was quite hoppy and pleasant. Also available was Theakston’s
OP, Isle
of Skye - Red Cullin, Tomintoule No.3, Courage
Directors, Draught Bass,
Caledonian 80/- and Schehallion Lager. What a super pub.
Archibald Simpson (Wetherspoons)
Well, what can I say? I decided to have a cheap bite to eat
so I went into this impressive pub, created, I believe from
an ex-bank. It really does need to be viewed from across the
road, (no, not because it’s that bad) in order to
appreciate the ornate columns. As for the beer, well as all
to often found in Wetherspoons pubs most of the beers were
not on, but we did have London Pride, Directors,
Theakston’s Best and Deuchars IPA. I thought I would go
for the IPA - I had been in Scotland for two days and not
tried this excellent brew. What an error of judgement. It
was cloudy, not bad enough to return but definitely not at
it’s best.
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The Old School House (Hogshead)
This, as the name might suggest, was previously a school and
has been rather tastefully converted to a pub. It has all
the usual plastic type books, wood panelling and ornaments
of the usual conversions but they have not made a bad job
really. As for the beer, I was asked if I wished to try my
selection, without any prompting, which was nice. The beer I
selected was Inveralmond Thrappledouser which was fine. Also
on offer was Inveralmond - Independence, Pedigree, 6X,
Deuchars IPA, Speckled
Hen and London
Pride. For the cider drinkers, there was Inches
Stonehouse Cider on handpull. Unfortunately, I missed the
beerfest, which was in early April.
The following day, before heading for the station, I managed
to pull in:
The Tilted Wig
This is sited almost across the road from Wetherspoons and
is a lively refurbished pub complete with the panelled walls
and nicotine paint job. It has a long bar and many tables
which cater for the numerous people going in for food. The
beer on offer was Caledonian 80/- and Isle of Skye Dark. I
went for one of each – well, it was my last chance before
leaving Scotland. The Isle of Skye was superb, almost like a
stout, which it may well have been (I must look that up!)
Anyway, back to the station for my 7.5 hr ride back to
Newark.
Summary:
Generally beer and pubs very good but would question
Wetherspoons being in the GBG
(far too many bad pints dispensed around the country, but
getting better).
Old Aberdeen, this is the focal point of the university and
is very interesting.
Art Gallery - excellent
Shops - plenty to keep the little women happy!
City - busy centre with plenty of attractions but the
planners must be schizo, they have a sea front which is a
mixture of industrial units with amusement arcades and
Virgin cinema and within a stones throw you have an 'olde
worlde' Scottish fishing hamlet, they really must take more
water with it.
They call it the granite city and they have some weird
gothic architecture but everything is bloody grey and even
the new buildings are made of grey synthetic granite, still
I think I will be going back soon and I will paint the town
red.
Blod
Nov. '00
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