Borders Walking Vacation - The Beer

(This is the third of three blog entries on our recent walking trip to the Scottish Borders.)

In addition to great walking and scenery, our trip to the Scottish Borders was also a great opportunity to experience some good local ale. This meant good access to cask ales - as faithful readers of this blog will no doubt know.

Day 1 - The Fox and Hounds Inn (Denholm) - 4-5 cask ale taps, though only two active: Ossian Ale and Wylam Gold Tankard. Observant readers will recall my previous sampling of Ossian, hence I opted for a tasty pint of the Tankard.

Day 2 - The Crosskeys Inn (Selkirk) - 2 cask ale taps, serving Theakston's Old Peculier and Black Sheep Best Bitter. I'd previously tried (though not blogged about) Old Peculier, so opted for a pint of the Bitter. While it was a reasonable ale, I'm starting to learn that bitter beers are not my favourite.

Day 3 - The George and Abbottsford Hotel (Melrose) - 3 cask ale taps, though only two active: Houston Warlock Stout and Inveralmond's Thrappledouser. We'd previously visited the George and Abbottsford on our shorter Borders holiday, at which time we bought some local bottled beer. Knowing they were beer connaisseurs, we stopped here for lunch. Not only was 'on tap' ale excellent, but so too was the food. So, we went back for supper as well. Obviously, I tried both ales, having a strong personal preference for the stout.

Day 4 - Buccleuch Arms Hotel (St. Boswells) - 1 cask ale tap, serving Stewart's Edinburgh Gold. Anticipating that both the food and beer couldn't top our previous day's experience, I was pleasantly surprised by the Edinburgh Gold.

Day 5 - The Cobbles Inn (Kelso) - 2 cask ale taps, serving Stewart's Edinburgh No 3 and Newcastle Pioneer Bitter (not to be confused with Newcastle Brown Ale). The No 3 was similar to the Gold, and reasonably tasty. I tried only a sample of the bitter to remind me of my apparent dislike of bitters.

Here endeth our 3-part blog series on our Scottish Borders vacation.