Rosemarkie, The Black isle:
Charming, quirky pub with a historic interior. Friendly staff, great beer (from the Cromarty Brewery, just 6 miles away), and a nice relaxing place to spend a hour or two waiting for the next bus. The food is a seperate business in a seperate room at the rear, but seemed to be popular.
Cromarty, The Black Isle:
Traditional village pub- with a very retro 70s pub sign outside. Great food, good beer, pleasant staff. Beer choice slightly limited when we visited as it was end-of-season, but still 1 cask ale on, and a good choice of bottles.
Inverness:
We’d been recommended this place for food, so unsurprisingly it’s very food-biased. It’s also very, very popular, and we only just got a table, so reservations are wise.
Outside it looks like a tastefully refurbished pub; bright and fresh but not ruined. Inside is quite traditional-looking, though recently refurbed and tidy, but quite tightly packed with tables.
From early evening until 9pm it’s packed with diners, but this thins out as food service ends, and there’s live music, so at this point the atmosphere changes a little. Decent beer choice, really good (and good value, if not actually cheap) food, and absolutely charming staff, given the workload.
I wouldn’t come here expecting a quiet pint, but for a meal that’s well above ordinary pub food it’s probably a no-brainer.
Inverness, next to the castle:
Traditional pub, with probably the best position in town, by the castle and with a view. Busy with tourists- lots of Americans, but we found a table inside. Good ale choice, pleasant staff, decent music at the right volume. Food seemed good, but we didn’t eat. You’d need a reservation to eat here in the evening, as it’s quite small and very busy, but still pleasant.
Inverness, right by the castle:
I pondered over including this; as the food bias was strong, but once the lunchtime rush was over it felt a bit more pub-like. Food pretty good, beer fine, staff lovely, but it didn’t feel like a place you’d pop for a pint.
Inverness:
Nice traditional Scottish bar in the middle of town. Friendly locals and staff, no cask ale, but Stella, so not all bad.
Inverness:
Predictably near the railway station, and apparently previously a bank and a school.
It’s a big, open-plan place, a bit spoons-a-like, and is Greene King (well, Belhaven). Quite similar to The Auctioneers, part of the same group. Beer was only OK- but then GK never sets my world alight. Friendly staff, no food temporarily when we visited.
Nairn, part of the Braeval Hotel:
This is a hotel bar, but as usual, we can stretch the pub definition in Scotland, and it’s Good Beer Guide listed.
Inside, the bar feels like a pub. The restaurant is a seperate room, which is nice, and the bar is dog-friendly. Decent food, great beer, friendly barman. The restaurant has a nice view over the nearby green and the Moray Firth.
Inverness:
Traditional Scottish pub with a historic interior including an unusual terrazzo spitoon around the bar counter. Great beer, great staff, great atmosphere, a fantastic pub.
Inverness:
A ‘spoons, right in the middle of Inverness. This is the bit where I type “nothing to see here”, yes?
Well, yes, but this managed to exceed expectations of ‘spoons by some margin. Sadly it was not a good thing; you expect a ‘spoons to be a little grim, a bit grubby, perhaps, and a bit soulless, that’s the price you pay for low prices.
This was, however, the grubbiest, grimmest one I’d been in, and I’ve been in the Moon Under Water and The Sir Henry Newbolt. It’s a cavernous, but low-ceilinged space, gloomy inside, though better near the windows, where we sat at a sticky table for 40 mins before anyone cleared the multitudes of plates from the next one.