Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Scotland

  • Glasgow – Scotia Bar

    Glasgow – Scotia Bar

    The Scotia pub in Glasgow is listed in the Good Beer Guide and it also couldn’t really be much nearer to the hotel I’m staying in. As with many cities, there’s competition and debate as to which is the oldest pub, with the Scotia claiming that they are the earliest having opened in 1792. It has gone through numerous incarnations, some periods when it had a bit of a reputation and some when it has become more peaceful and a haven for authors.

    The service was friendly and I must admit to having expected a slightly more generic interior, but there’s a real feel of character inside.

    It wasn’t overly busy when I was there, although the barman said that the folk band were arriving soon and that it would become more lively.

    There are old photos, maps and illustrations on the wall. This pub has also seen its fair share of performers, not least Billy Connolly and Gerry Rafferty. The pub also advertises that they’ve had a horse in there drinking a bucket of Guinness and The Scotsman newspaper notes a local saying about that incident:

    “We’ve had a horse in here, drinking. It was a wedding reception. They brought the horse in, the horse got drunk, whereupon it went out and collapsed in the road. The council had to get a crane to lift it.”

    I was just little disappointed that the beer selection was slightly generic, for some reason I thought Belhaven would have something slightly more interesting. Then I realised I had forgotten something, which is that Belhaven is owned by Greene King. I make no further comment on that…. I opted for the 80 Shilling Ale from Belhaven Brewery which was OK, but that’s about as far as I’d go, although it was at least well-kept.

    Anyway, this is a proper pub with some real heritage, so visiting is recommended as the service is friendly and the environment is clean, albeit slightly dingy. Glasgow has been a bit lax at times in maintaining its historic buildings, so there aren’t as many old pubs as there perhaps should be, so that makes this one even more special. A couple more innovative guest ales would be nice, but there’s a unique feel to this pub and I did like it. I can clearly see why this beer is in the Good Beer Guide, although I feel that’s more down to the atmosphere and heritage rather than down to the real ale.

  • Glasgow – Society Room

    Glasgow – Society Room

    The Good Beer Guide is always a reliable source of pubs for me and I’m slowly working my way through as many venues that are listed in it that I reasonably can. For the first time, I’m a little unsure about where it’s recommending me in Glasgow, the choices are sometimes a little generic whilst some really decent places are missed out. I do understand the process for how pubs get listed, which is to do with the local CAMRA group, but the balance seems a bit off here with a focus towards the chains. Anyway, this is another JD Wetherspoon listed pub that is in the book, so I popped in for a quick half.

    As for the pub name, I might as well just quite JD Wetherspoon, who note:

    “West George Street was once home to every bank and insurance company of note. Among them was the Star Life Assurance Society, which was housed in the building on the site of this Wetherspoon pub. Established in 1824, the Alliance Assurance Company was at 151 West George Street from c1880–c1970. In its early days, the Alliance was managed by Stewart Lawrie. He was also ‘local secretary’ of the Westminster Fire Office, another company at this address.”

    This is one of the Lloyds branded pubs which JD Wetherspoon have, so there can be music and other general noise on weekend evenings. During my visit, it was all quite peaceful and quiet. Incidentally, the toilets are really badly signed here, I can’t recall seeing as many customers looking for them as in this pub (they’re downstairs, the entrance to the steps is to the left when entering….)

    This was a little bit of a surprise, the Fraoch Heather Ale from Williams Brothers Brewing Company, who seem to have a deal with the Wetherspoons round here as I’ve seen and tried a few of their beers recently. It was actually something quite innovative and this is apparently a 4,000 year old Scottish style of drink. I can’t say that a heather beer is something that I’ve had before, but it’s quite herby and I liked the strength of the flavours. For a beer that cost £1 for half a pint, this really is quite impressive.

    For a Wetherspoons, this is quite a well reviewed pub, so the local management must be pretty decent. Anyway, this was another perfectly good pub and I can see why it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide given the range of well-kept real ales. As for the pub, it could have been a little cleaner, but the staff were friendly and helpful so it seemed a welcoming enough environment.

  • Glasgow – Pavement

    Glasgow – Pavement

    Whilst randomly walking about in Glasgow, I noticed that this bar cafe type set-up had very good reviews, so I thought that I’d pop in for food and drinks. I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of set-up this would be, but actually it’s a really informal place which has managed to become what I would call on-trend without doing anything formulaic. They’ve instead focused on excellent customer service, a thoughtful craft beer selection and decent food. That to me is a winning combination.

    As I’m a slight idiot, I tried to order a half of a beer that was actually served in a can. Force of habit and I must admit that I didn’t really pay a huge amount of attention to the options as I was just taken with having a raspberry sour.

    I was very pleased to discover when the can that was brought over that it’s from the excellent Põhjala brewery in Estonia. I’ve had several of their beers, including the Must Kuld and the Must Kuld Chilli & Chocolate, both at the Artichoke in Norwich. I thought that this was a rather decent raspberry sour with a rich and not overpowering flavour with quite an acidic aftertaste that wasn’t unpleasant. Nice, and a reminder that I want to go to Estonia….

    It transpired that I had entered 12 minutes before they were taking last orders for food. I try to avoid doing that as not to annoy kitchens, but since I had got this far and the staff were friendly, I ordered anyway.

    The fish and chips were excellent, with a soft and light batter which I’m more used to getting on the European mainland. I also appreciated the generous portion of lemon, as sometimes the slither offered really is quite pointless. There was nothing greasy, everything tasted of a good quality and was cooked appropriately, so I was entirely satisfied. The menu wasn’t overly large, which I see as a positive, with a  variety of specials as well.

    The customer service here is also personable and attentive, so the environment feels comfortable and welcoming. I can see why the reviews are so positive, this is a really managed and run bar with a slightly continental feel that I really like. Given their prominent position in Merchant City, and next door to Brewdog, I did wonder if this was operated by a large company but it transpires that it’s a family run business. All really lovely.

  • Glasgow – Tenement House

    Glasgow – Tenement House

    This is the Tenement House in Glasgow, now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. As National Trust members can also gain access to properties in Scotland for free, I thought that I’d pre-book a ticket since it’s only open on Fridays to Sundays.

    The National Trust have displays on the ground and first floors. They perhaps don’t need so much space for their shop and cafe given the limited area they have to work with, but I suppose it all raises revenue for the charity. The volunteers (or staff, I’m not sure whether they’re paid) here are friendly and engaging, so it all felt welcoming.

    An exhibition room in one of the two flats that were on the first floor. The other flat, which comprises of four rooms, has been returned to what it might have looked like at the beginning of the twentieth century.

    The bathroom in the flat. I hadn’t quite realised that this tenement was one which was built in the 1890s for the middle classes, I had for some reason thought that it was a block which had been lived in by the poorer members of society. I asked the friendly volunteer about this and she explained that this was quite an aspirational development and that many other people in Glasgow would have lived in much worse conditions. I think my confusion was because I associate tenements in Glasgow with something rather less salubrious. Anyway, as bathrooms go, it’s not bad at all and would have felt quite state of the art at the time.

    The bedroom.

    What a lovely idea, a bedroom in a cupboard. There’s one in the room the other side as well.

    The kitchen area with its large range. The property was lived in by Agnes Toward between 1911 and 1965, before she gifted it to the National Trust for Scotland.

    And the living room.

    There wasn’t a vast amount here to see and so I think I’d have been disappointed if I’d paid full price, which was £8.50 for an adult, probably too much given a visit isn’t going to last more than half an hour. But, given that I got in free, I thought that this was an interesting diversion for a Friday morning. It is though perhaps not a typical example of how the average Glasgow resident would have been living in the late nineteenth century, although to be fair, most National Trust properties aren’t really very good examples of how the poorest lived.

  • Glasgow – Glasgow Subway

    Glasgow – Glasgow Subway

    I use London Underground a lot, so was strangely and frankly needlessly excited to use the Glasgow Subway, which is the third oldest network in the world. It’s also the oldest in the world still to be in its original form as there hasn’t been an expansion since it opened on 14 December 1896. It took them six years to build it and there are fifteen stations (and always have been since it opened) on the 6.5 miles circular route. What wasn’t entirely ideal was that in its first week there was a crash at St. Enoch station when one carriage ran into the back of another one. It didn’t discourage the locals though who were apparently mostly quite excited about this new service.

    There’s an Outer and Inner network, although they’re both the same other than they go around the circle in a different direction. There’s just the one line, so there’s not much chance of getting lost.

    The platforms, some of which are laid out differently so that there are separate platforms for each direction.

    And the train itself. Rather impressively, this is only the second set of carriages that the network has had, with the first ones in use between 1896 and 1977, and the second set from 1979 until today. There’s good news though, an entirely new set of carriages is being brought into usage from next year. The gap from 1977 until 1979 is that the network closed for an extensive modernisation and restoration, but there was talk at the time that it might not reopen due to falling demand.

    This is a fantastic video of the period just before the closure in 1977 and it’s fair to say that it looks in a right old state….

    The interior of the carriages, which felt comfortable enough to me. There’s the benefit that although it can get busy it’s unlikely that anyone will wait long for a seat given that no passenger is likely remain on for more than a few stops (unless they’re just sitting there going around and around which I assume must happen).

    I paid £4.20 for an all-day adult ticket which allows unlimited use for the day, which isn’t an unreasonable price. It’s a shame that the network has never been expanded, but that does mean its retained its historic feel. The system is though easy to use, everything seems clean and the service is regular with trains every few minutes.

  • Glasgow – Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

    Glasgow – Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

    Today’s expedition was to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which has now reopened and has free admission but requires advance bookings. I thought it looked very quiet at 10.00 when it opened, but a friendly security guard politely told me that I was standing at the back of the building. There’s a myth that the architect killed himself when he discovered that the building was built back to front and although that’s untrue, it’s all muddled up as far as I was concerned. The security guard said that he expected to send many more visitors to the correct entrance as if to reassure me that I’m not an idiot.

    A visit here is likely to take at least two hours, and I was there for longer. I’ll pull some particularly interesting exhibits (or what I call particularly interesting) out in separate posts. What remains below are some random exhibits that I felt the need to take photos of…..

    Located in the main hall, this is the Kelvingrove Organ which was built by TC Lewis & Co in 1901 and it’s still in its original working condition. Apparently there are 48 speaking stops (I don’t know what they are, I’m not very musical) and 2,889 pipes.

    An elephant. I suspect my commentary here isn’t overly useful, but this is the West Court and until 1977 it was filled with ship models. These are now located at the Riverside Museum which I visited yesterday, and between 1980 and 2003 the area was filled with arms and armour. Now it has a plane, elephant and numerous other dead animals.

    I like random exhibits such as this, which is a section of railing from a former public toilet located on London Road.

    A Stagonolepis, which lived in this area around 220 million years ago.

    The heads in East Court are just a little, er, scary…..

    This is ‘Woman in Oriental Dress’ painted by Henri Matisse, apparently with an attempt to show sensuality.

    The ‘Portrait of Madame Valentine Fray’ painted by Auguste Renoir, another artwork which shows the quality and depth of the collections that are held here.

    The ‘Ostre Anlaeg Park’ which is located in Copenhagen, painted by Paul Gauguin.

    Another one of the art galleries, and it’s fair to say that these were less popular in terms of visitor numbers than the displays of dead animals.

    I have no words.

    The main hall is a grand affair and there’s plenty of space for the performances which take place here.

    They don’t look like very comfortable stools.

    The stretched out skin of a green anaconda and I can’t think of anything less than I’d want on my wall. Having written that, I suppose one that was alive would be worse laid out in my flat…..

    Back to West Court, with a Spitfire being the highlight of the collection here. It’s safer here, for a few years it was displayed outside RAF Leuchars in Fife, open to the elements.

    The ‘Coronation of the Blessed Virgin’ by the Arts and Craft designer Harry Clarke (1889-1931) who produced this in 1923.

    I can’t remember what these are called, but Richard will know as he’s making one in his front room. I don’t think it’s as nice as this one though.

    The corridors of history…..

    Another packed gallery full of people.

    I don’t doubt the quality of this artwork, as it’s by Paul Cezanne who has a slightly better reputation than I do for painting, but I wonder who originally bought it. The gallery notes that “he may have painted this on a rainy day when he couldn’t get out into the countryside”. I suspect there’s more than a little guesswork there with that statement…..

    This is ‘Still Life’ by Auguste Renoir, painted in 1908.

    I knew that there were rattlesnakes in Glasgow…..

    A happy bear.

    And, finally for this set of photos, the museum’s giraffe.

    As for this gallery and museum, I thought that it was really quite impressive and there was plenty to see. I liked that there was no admission charge to get in and the whole advance ticket purchase process was easy to understand and worked out well. There is currently a limit of 1,000 people in the building, although at a best guess there weren’t that many inside when I was there. The staff at the entrance were friendly, although there were nearly no staff in the galleries themselves and I didn’t see any actually engaging with visitors. The one-way system seem to cause more confusion than benefit, causing visitors to cluster together rather than just walk where they wanted (and it was widely ignored anyway by the more rebellious visitors). There’s definitely enough to see to justify a repeat visit should I ever be in the area again.

  • Glasgow – Taphouse Bar and Kitchen

    Glasgow – Taphouse Bar and Kitchen

    As I walking back to the city centre from Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum, I thought I’d pop in the Taphouse Bar and Kitchen for lunch.

    There was a friendly staff member who told me when I entered that there was no food currently being served, so my initial food plan failed.

    It wasn’t a particularly busy location (there were no customers inside other than me), but it was clean and comfortable, although perhaps a little bit more formulaic than on-trend. It’s been open for a couple of years now and there’s an outside seating area which is where the only other customers were sitting.

    The draft beer selection was inadequate, the best I could really find was Blue Moon and I don’t really consider that as a craft beer, although views will differ on that matter and it’s more likely to be viewed as such in the United States. It tasted slightly odd as well, although not unpleasant, I couldn’t really establish why that was. Perhaps it’s just better drunk on the beach in California….. There were a few more cans available to widen the options, but the choice verged more towards generic rather than interesting.

    I can’t find fault that the bar wasn’t serving food, as that could be for any number of reasons and I was told immediately so wasn’t inconvenienced. But, I couldn’t find anything else here that made a visit appealing and putting “taphouse” as the name of a venue does perhaps bring with it an obligation to do more with beer. I did look back on their Untappd record to see if there are anything in the past that was more innovative, but there’s very little. It makes it worse when they themselves claim “look forward to a quality selection of the finest craft ales”.

    Overall, a welcoming environment, but for me at least a concept not well implemented despite the on-trend and exciting area in which they’re based. They’d perhaps be better to rebrand as more of a restaurant with some craft beer options, especially as the food menu seems to be well reviewed.

  • Glasgow – Bier Halle

    Glasgow – Bier Halle

    The Bier Halle is something of a local institution having been in this central Glasgow location for a couple of decades.

    There was a friendly welcome offered by a staff member when I went downstairs and he mentioned that there was a table left outside if I wanted that. I didn’t, I had no intentions of sitting outside in the extreme heat that Glasgow is currently enduring. It’s fair to say that most other customers were perfectly content to frazzle, but I left them to it. Judging from the amount of beer and food being taken up the stairs, it remained busy up on the sun kissed pavements of Glasgow.

    Slightly dark I accept, but clean and the environment was comfortable. Incidentally, there is no phone signal downstairs, but the staff member mentioned that when I entered so that I could have chance to connect to the wi-fi. The bar is using an app which it requires customers to order from and this worked well, with my drink being brought over promptly.

    The beer list wasn’t enormous and there’s perhaps too much of a concentration of international beers at the expense of German beers, which I thought was the theme of the bar. Anyway, this was the Furstenberg lager which was entirely adequate and nicely cool and refreshing. The food was that being served looked quite tempting, but I had a Brewdog Wings Wednesday go to shortly afterwards, so I didn’t want to overdo it.

    I can imagine that this location gets busy on weekend evenings during winter, I’m sure that it’s very homely. Perhaps not as on-trend it once was, but still clearly popular enough to keep on trading for so long. It’s also reminded me that I fancy another little trip to Germany……

  • Glasgow – Brewdog Merchant City

    Glasgow – Brewdog Merchant City

    I’m slowly trying to go to every Brewdog in the UK and this is the chain’s city centre location in Glasgow. I’ve never quite understood the Doghouse branding that Brewdog have, but this was what the pub was called between 2015 and 2018, before reverting to the current external signage.

    I was welcomed by a friendly team member who gave me this table and it seems that all sole diners were put in this row of table seating. I thought it was quite a decent location, I could see what was going on throughout the bar in case of any exciting drama. Unfortunately, nothing dramatic happened, but it’s good to be ready and in a prime location.

    The beer fridge and bar, all standard Brewdog layout.

    These windows at the rear retract fully to open up to the outside and they were opened just before I left (I was leaving anyway, I didn’t stomp off because they opened up the windows).

    I had a look through the beer list and was a little perturbed to see that I had already tried nearly everything on the draught (I still don’t know whether it’s better to use draft or draught, so I alternative between them a bit) beer selection. This suggested to me that either I’m visiting too many Brewdogs or they’re not rotating their beers enough. Rather than take any blame myself, I decided they were at fault.

    The above beer is the Cosmic Crush Raspberry by Overworks, which is Brewdog’s own brewery. I didn’t order a half (it was expensive, so I limited myself to a third), this was another mispour from Brewdog and I liked how the engaging staff member apologised and said if it was a problem then I could always leave some. It absolutely wasn’t a problem, and that’s about the eighth mispour in a Brewdog that I’ve had. This pleases me greatly. Refreshing and suitably sour, but there was a slight chemical feel to the aftertaste rather than a subtle flavour of raspberries, but still a very decent beer.

    I also ordered a Vagabond, which is Brewdog’s gluten free beer that I don’t think I’ve had (or I’ve forgotten if I have) and this was perfectly adequate, but with nothing remarkable about it.

    And I ordered Wings Wednesdays, with no shortage of chicken wings despite the national delivery problem which is apparently even impacting Greggs. The staff here were the most pro-active in offering extra rounds of the wings that I’ve experienced in a Brewdog, always being friendly and helpful as well. I should probably though switch to a different food order in future, the wings have quite a strong sauce which isn’t ideal on the throat…. For anyone interested (goodness knows who), the chicken wings tasted fine, but weren’t as crispy as I’ve had elsewhere, as if they’ve had them sitting in the sauce for some time. I didn’t let it bother me though and merrily ate them anyway. Incidentally, the menu here has a strong focus on vegan and vegetarian dishes, I will likely try those again as they’ve been excellent when I’ve had them before.

    The reviews of the bar are positive, although there’s one furious customer claiming that they were ill after their visit and it must be Brewdog’s fault. It probably wasn’t, but some people seem entirely content to make these accusations. Anyway, I liked the reply to the review which I assume was a complaint about the time someone had to wait:

    “First son was born before I got served”

    The reply from Brewdog was:

    “Congratulations!”.

    OK, it might not be comedy gold, but I liked it. I also liked that Brewdog had little interest in tolerating a customer who abused their staff with the “unbelievable snowflakes for bar staff” in a review. I always feel a little sorry for the bar staff when I read reviews like that, but there we go….

    All told, I had a very positive impression about this Brewdog (although, to be fair, I like nearly all of them) given the clean environment, the friendly staff and the food and drink options. All rather lovely.

  • Glasgow – Sir John Moore Pub

    Glasgow – Sir John Moore Pub

    And another JD Wetherspoon outlet, which I visited on my pursuit to go to as many Good Beer Guide listed pubs in Glasgow (I say Glasgow, but my efforts are national….) as I had time for. This one is in an unexceptional building which was formerly a row of shops. It’s named after Sir John Moore (obviously I suppose….) who was a locally born British army general. He lived between 1761 and 1809, serving in the military from 1776 until he was killed in action. A monument was erected in George Square in 1811 to commemorate his life, the first to be put there.

    The interior, which is functional but there’s nothing overly exciting here, it’s not a grand conversion of a bank like some of their other pubs in the city.

    The beers were fine, the first photo is of the Pentland IPA from Stewart Brewing and the second photo is of the Seven Giraffes from Williams Brothers Brewing Co. Both beers were well-kept and at the appropriate temperature and all that, but the Seven Giraffes was quite bland and unexciting. The Kettle crisps were delicious.

    Service was polite enough and the environment felt comfortable and safe. There was a choice from seven different ales during my visit, with nothing standing out to be exceptional, but at least there was a choice. Another failure though in providing any range of beer styles, the beers were all quite samey and there were no dark options.

    I had a little look at the reviews of the pub and noted one angry customer complain about the staff and note “I only spoke to 3 staff but all had attitude issues”. I don’t know how some customers manage this, I’d struggle to find three staff in a year who I’d say had anywhere near attitude issues, let alone three in one pub in one visit. Actually, I do have a clue what the problem might be here…..

    And another review that noted:

    “Absolute shambles standing at the bar for 15 minutes waving a tenner around at a bar with no more than 1 layer of people being served. Staff should use their eyes! Pointed this out to be told you’ll be served when someone is available… well the 5 of you serving were available several times and the only reason I hadn’t been was your staffs poor bartending.”

    I’d be willing to bet that the staff had used their eyes and had managed to ignore the customer that was waving their notes about. The amount of customers that I’ve seen over the years sticking their notes out towards bar staff as they walk down the bar, or bang coins on the counter as if that will help…..

    Anyway, I digress. There was nothing particularly wrong with this pub and the prices were inevitably cheap and affordable as it’s operated by JD Wetherspoon. I can’t think of anything overly exciting to note about the place and it seems to have got in the Good Beer Guide for the valid reason that they have a lot of well-kept beers.