Ballater:
We liked this the most of the pubs in Ballater. For a start, no blurred lines here- this is a bar, not a hotel. Secondly, MournHub was on but volume was low.
The best beer we had in Ballater, nice staff, decent-looking food (a chap nearby was having a curry which looked great). As you’d expect, it’s very much a tourist pub with the tartan etc, but it wasn’t bad at all.
Ballater:
We walked straight past this: the good beer guide says The Glenaden Hotel, Google maps says The Glenaden Hotel. The sign says The Barrel Lounge.
Anyway: it was OK. Unexceptional. MournHub was playing so we moved seats away from the TV. Beer decent enough but otherwise tourist-trade Scottish hotel bar.
Ballater:
Much discussion over including this. We have to blur the lines in Scotland, and have been doing so for years, but having to wait to be seated felt un-pubby.
Lunch was OK but not spectacular, and my beer wasn’t terrible but had seen better days, and the welcome was a bit more brusque than welcoming. By no means awful, but could have been better,
Banchory, Aberdeenshire:
The most, erm, vibrant-looking hotel in town, but you know what? It was pleasant. Inside is basic rather than plush, but the noisier bar is seperate, the landlord is very friendly, and while there’s no ale and the “craft” keg is Greene King, there is Staropramen :-), and there’s whisky-flavour condoms available in the bogs, for that special occasion!
Banchory:
Pleasant hotel with a nice lounge at the back, and a sun terrace beyond that. Great beer (Cairngorm IPA in good condition) and really friendly owner, nice lunchtime food, but sadly no evening meals at present due to staff difficulties.
Sadly the heritage interior public bar is now a coffee shop, with the bar being at the back in the lounge. The lounge itself is pleasant- modern but not soulless.
Banchory, Aberdeenshire:
We popped in for Sunday lunch, and discussed the viability of this place for PubBlog: was this a pub? The line is often blurred, and in Scotland more so. We decided, after lunchtime and when the crowds had cleared, that the bar was pubish enough.
Fantastic food, pleasant staff. Beer was keg but entirely reasonable, surroundings really pleasant- an elegant hotel by the riverside.
Banchory, Aberdeenshire:
We’d been here before, but that was before PubBlog.
We think the layout has changed a bit, but not massively. It’s a hotel, but as usual the bar is a pub. There’s outside space on a former car park, and there’s a restaurant and a lobby area as well.
No ale, but some crafty-type keg and decent lager, Decent enough, if unexceptional, food too. Pleasant staff, but on a Sunday evening some of the the locals could have done with silencers- a conversation in a relatively quiet bar being carried out at yelling volume 🙁
Inverness:
Another spoons-a-like, really. A big shed of a place. Sister pub to Platform 8, and the same sort of stuff. No GK ale though, so instead it was misogynistic bell end beer, which was fine. Lunch was OK, or at least mine was, Stymistress’s less so. Keen prices and helpful staff though, but you have to wonder why a place advertising itself as a sports bar would find rowdy rugby fans a problem: I don’t care for them myself, but if you enter a sports bar when rugby is on, you shouldn’t be expecting peace and quiet.
Inverness:
“The oldest pub this side of the river”.
Most of the pubs are the other side of the river 😉
A nice, traditional Scottish pub. No ale, but there looked to be a good selection of keg beer, though I drank water as it was a bit early, or at least, felt it for some reason.
Very much a locals drinking pub rather than a tourist trap. Nice layout of booths, and a small carpeted area with fireplace one end. Evidently once had 2 rooms, but now opened out.
Kilmore, Drumnadrochit:
Drumnadrochit is Nessie central, but our target was just outside town away from all that. The Benleva is a hotel, but as is so often the case, the bar is the local pub. There’s also a brewery in the grounds (sorry, facebook link), with their excellent beer behind the bar. Great food, and a friendly barman too.