01/10/19 - Inverness - The Good Beer Guide Pubs and Others

Pubs - 5

3rd and Final City on the Scottish train holiday.   Finding our reserved seats was made easier by there only being 3 carriages but infinitely harder by none of them being labelled.   We found Seat 21 and 22, moved some elderly day trippers and before determining 2 hours into the journey, we were in carriage C - and not A. 

That will teach us to use logic, like going to the carriage at the front.

The walking in Inverness was a simple town trail - with a view to knocking off several of the Good Beer Guide ticks.

But first, a visit to Gellions - who can ignore the chance to visit the oldest in the City?   A functional boozer, noted only for the prospect of Live Music and Leeds vs. West Brom later in the night.

Oldest and Freshly Caught Haggis

The first GBG Tick is MacGregors (Academy Street).   Visions of an old man's drinking den giving Mrs M the shivers were quickly dispelled by a bright, cafe type bar.   Two cask and a large number of kegs.   My cask failed mid pour - so I moved onto a keg Spey Valley David's Not So Bitter.

It must have been the name.

This too proved a mistake. 

Look at that filth

I compared with other check in on UnTappd and stated that mine looks like no one elses.   I should have taken it back - but somehow, you'd expect better from a GBG pub.

Disappointment only intensified in the gents.

No

Mrs M retreats back to the Premier Inn, leaving me with a bank card and a couple of hours grace.

Next stop is the GBG Black Isle Bar (Church Street) - a cavernous prison canteen of a bar, with an internal pizza oven and TV sets letting you know what's on offer from the breweries range.

Everything needed for the gentleman around town

Who was to know that their Scotch Ale was only served in halves?   Not wanting to fall foul of minimum card purchase, I found a flaw in their pintless plan.

Other chap has the half pint hump

Architectural meanderings as I walk past the churches and over the castle for the appropriately named Castle Tavern (View Place).

Castle View

For a Castle View

Comfortable, traditional bar, offering locALE brews and for those so inclined, certificates for finishing either the Great Glen Way or the Scottish 500.

Never go far wrong with an Orkney Dark Island

That's enough for the afternoon, so I head back to the Purple Palace that is the Premier Inn.   Mrs M is up for evening sight seeing.

Inverness by night.   Who allowed those blocks to be built in front of the castle?

It was going to be kill two birds with one stone and head to GBG Number 27 Bar and Restaurant but Mrs M was not hungry.   Rather than an aimless bimble around town, we were seduced by the Caledonian.

Handsome

Average Deuchars stuffed into Carling glasses and any change to our food requirements was answered by "chef stops at 8pm", it did have the saving grace of having the Baggies on.   Leeds triumphed.

Only the best bar in Inverness could save us now.   Hootanannys may not in the GBG but its one of the finest pubs I've been to, having discovered it 10 years ago. 

You simply cannot beat the atmosphere generated by live music in a busy environment.

And Guinness is always good.

Hootanannys by day

Hootanannys by night

Regrets?  I should have bought a T-Shirt.