Lake District

From http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/

Omitted from my last blog posting was the photo of the group that gathered for the branch meeting in Banchory's British Legion recently:

l-r: Colin Kilgour, Ian Stewart, Jas Bhagrath, Helge Nareid, Mike Burton, Ron McGrew, George Howie, Richard Jones & Ian Chapman all pose for the (CAMRA) camera

We had a walking weekend down in the Lake District and, naturally, we managed to quaff a few ales as well. It's very much Jenning's country of course, but there are other ales available and a few smaller local breweries too.

First pit stop when I got off the train at Penrith was the Agricultural Hotel, a GBG entry just across the road from the station:

A Jenning's pub, as you can see, with 4 of their ales on. We stayed in Keswick overnight and the Lodge there was a Thwaite's house:

The best pub that we saw that night, however, was the Dog and Gun - as its name implies, and, like a number of pubs in the heart of fell-walking country, it advertises itself as dog-friendly - and it's quite noticeable as soon as you walk in the door. The beers there were more interesting:

There's plenty of pit-stops when you're out walking in this area and we came across the very welcoming Britannia Inn (http://britinn.net/) at lunchtime on our first full day. Three Coniston ales were on - Bluebird, of course, plus Special Oatmeal Stout, and a Special Edition house ale. Thwaites' Langdale Tup and Windermere Pale from Hawkshead Brewery were also being served. Another GBG entry, I believe, and a former local CAMRA pub of the year - well worth stopping for.

We got to our accommodation at the New Dungeon Ghyll (http://www.dungeon-ghyll.co.uk/) in good time for a shower and kip before dinner. It's a nice, modern hotel with good facilities, albeit a little quiet - another Thwaites outlet - Langdale Tup and Wainwright were on. Adjacent to it, is the Sticklebarn, which is a bit livelier and had a greater selection of ales - 3 Jenning's, Keswick's Thirst Run, plus Hobgoblin.

Just a mile along the valley is the Old Dungeon Ghyll and we had to pay a visit there. The bar is like an old stable converted, and reminded me of the Clachaig Inn. A selection of 8 ales there included two Theakston's, two Black Sheep, Yates' Bitter, Barngates Brewery's Westmorland Gold and CAMRA's champion gold beer of Britain this year, Loweswater Gold from http://www.cumbrianlegendaryales.com/

The local pubs were advertising a Langdale Valley pub crawl:

and cask ale was also being promoted by apparently rival brewers:

The next day we had a fairly long-ish walk which took us from Langdale to Borrowdale and we stopped overnight at the Scafell Hotel, Rosthwaite, which has another cracking former local CAMRA pub of the year, the Riverside Bar (http://www.scafell.co.uk/the-riverside-bar/) to its rear. The selection of ales there included 2 Jenning's beers plus Skipton Brewery's Copper Dragon and, best of all, Cumberland Breweries' Corby Blonde.

Just before we got to Rosthwaite, however, we came across another lovely little pub, apparently in the middle of nowhere - the Langstrath Country Inn (http://thelangstrath.com/). A couple of Jenning's, Thirst Fall again, plus Black Sheep were the choices. We were pretty grubby but it was dry enough to sit outside anyway:

Nice trip - change of scenery and some different beers.