GOUROCK
A small town on the River Clyde, Gourock was at one time a seaside resort but is now mainly residential.
The large shops and shopping centres are in Greenock. However, Gourock has plenty of small specialist gift shops and cafes.
The pubs are all found on the main road running through Gourock
Travel down the M8 from Glasgow, eventually driving alongside the south shore of the River Clyde to Inverclyde, which consists of old shipbuilding towns Port Glasgow and Greenock, and the smaller town Gourock.
Gourock is also at the end of a rail line from Glasgow which stops in the middle of the town at the pier. Ferries leave the pier for Dunoon (Dunoon trail) and Kilcreggan
Gourock is lager land - in fact you can have a different keg lager in each of the pubs and still there would be some you have not tried. Most pubs have several lagers and only one heavy. Lots of bars have Tennent’s Lager and Tennent’s Lager Ice Cold. You can often find both Guinness and Belhaven Best in the cold and ice cold versions as well. Why does it need to be even colder - not because of the sun!
GOUROCK
Travel by train to Gourock but get off at the stop before Gourock called Fort Matilda. Walk towards Gourock (keep river on right) and come to the Cardwell Inn at Cardwell Bay. When leaving, go out the back door of this pub (prettier route) and walk on into Gourock and cross the railway by the footbridge (try not to miss it) to find the Albert, now closed on the other side. You can then cross the road from the Albert and walk on to find The Wherry Inn, Monteith's, MacGregors (was The Darroch) and then The Victoria in reasonably quick succession.
Keep walking on the left pavement to The Kempock (ignore Cleats across the road - for a moment). It is then a longish stroll to The Spinnaker and the now closed The Firth, which are practically beside each other.
Now you can cross the road and return to central Gourock, with the Clyde on the left, visiting the Cafe Continental and then Cleats. Coming out of Cleats the station to Glasgow is just around the corner on the pier.
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.Books on pubs
A selection of recommended books on pubs and their history. There are books on the social history of pubs and the design of pubs through the ages.
There are also books on visiting pubs and ones recommending pubs to visit.
CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide
Death of the English Pub by Christopher Hutt
Brewers, Brands and the Pubs in their Hands by Tony Thornton
Licensed to Sell by Brandwood, Davidson & Slaughter
And many more
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Scottish Pub Crawls
Craig Stevenson and John MacKay have used their bus passes to good effect. They have toured the towns and cities of Scotland visiting pubs. They recount their adventures in a series of books:
The Auldest Boozers in Town
The Cheap Way Round
Still Goin’
Inn Aff The Bar
Goin’ Roon The Edge
Mud, Sweat and Beers
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Books on Beer
A selection of recommended books covering all aspects of beer and brewing. There are books on the history of beer and others on different styles of beer.
For example
An Inebriated History of Britain by Peter Haydon
Amber, Gold & Black by Martyn Cornell
Brew Britannia by Jessica Boak & Ray Bailey
The Story of the Pint by Martyn Cornell
Miracle Brew by Pete Brown
Built to Brew by Lynn Pearson
And many more
The Cardwell Inn
The Cardwell Inn has outside seating either side of main door. Inside there are tall tables to the right, while the servery starts on the left and curves around into the main room . The servery has bar stools and opposite it are stools and shelve space. Beyond the servery the room opens up to offer dining style tables with banquette seating. To the right of this are is another room, with windows, which also has dining style seating.. The pub serves food and always has a supply of daily papers.
heavy: Belhaven Best. Neck Oil IPA (Beavertown), Maltsmiths IPA
lager: Tennent’s , Carling, Bones Lager (Beavertown), Amstel, Birra Moretti
Cider: Strongbow , Strongbow Dark Fruit Guinness
Albert Hotel (closed - now a nice café)
Albert Hotel is a wood and chrome bar room which makes it a cold, stark place. Small bar area and large beer garden. Coffee machine to give it class
heavy: Tennents70/-
lager: Tennents, Fosters, Carling,
Cider: Strongbow Guinness
Old Wherry Tavern
Old Wherry Tavern is a small, pleasant, one roomed pub below tenement; it has a happy host. Banquette seating and tables all around with tables and chairs, and with standing room in middle.
A pleasant place for a drink.
As featured in the book "Still Goin' " by Stevenson & Mackay
Have one here
heavy: Tennents 70/-
lager: Tennents and Tennents Ice Cold,
PLACES TO VISIT WITH PUBTRAILS
The towns and villages highlighted on this web site have a wide variety of pubs and beers in them. All of the places are great to visit, whether for a day or longer, and most have tourist attractions for all of the family.
There is a large variety of pubs throughout the different towns shown below. Some you may wish never to visit again but even discovering these can be interesting. There are pubs that you would not take your wife into. While some you could not take your girlfriend into. A few you would not take either into. However, most of the pubs are very pleasant.
HOME MAP of places visited
Alnwick Ambleside Anstruther Bakewell Bamburgh Barnard Castle Bath Berwick upon Tweed Birnam & Dunkeld Bourton on the Water Bowness on Windermere Bridge of Allan Chester Chichester Dunblane Dunoon Edinburgh Ely Fort William Glasgow Gourock Greenock Helensburgh Inverness Kelso Keswick Knaresborough Largs Linlithgow Lyme Regis Melrose Montrose Newton Stewart North Berwick Norwich Oban Pebbles Penzance Portree Pitlochry Quorn Richmond Rothesay St Andrews Seahouses Seend Shrewsbury Skipton Stirling Stratford-upon-Avon Stockton Heath Whitby Windemere Whitstable York
Lyle’s (was Montieth's)
Montieth's (Monty's) - at last a bar that uses an apostrophe!
Now Lyle’s
Small, pleasant two roomed pub, below tenement, with friendly staff. Younger, nosier and busier crowd than Wherry.
One of Scotland's heritage pubs - CAMRA (although changed a little since the book was published) - a regionally important historic interior link
Lyle’s has made the windows much larger in a bid to move away from an under the tenement bar and into youth culture. news
heavy: Innes & Gunn Session Ale
lager: Tennents, Heverlee
Cider: Magners Guinness
McGregor's (formerly The Darroch)
McGregor's (formerly The Darroch)
Large room with two distinct areas; the area to the left has the long servery along the side wall with seating and tables along the wall to left and tall tables in front of bar counter. There are to the right, up a step, has large comfy sofas with low tables. Beyond this is the door to the beer garden.
Have a pint here
heavy: John Smiths; Camden Pale Ale
lager: Bud Light; Camden Helles ; Birra Moretti
cider: Magners Guinness
PUB QUIZ
How many legal starting moves are available in Chess?
Answer at foot of page
Victoria Bar ★
Victoria Bar (the Vic) has an old oval shaped bar with centre gantry. The side door gives a choice of going to the right or left - which takes you to either side of a log thin oval bar. There is some seating at the wall to the right but the left is an all standing side. The front door takes you to the other end of the bar and there is seating to the left. There is another bar (not always open) beyond this seating. Can get very busy due to prices and measures being attractive. Not what it was when privately owned. Only place with light beer on keg!
The restaurant above, called Fusion, is well worth a visit with excellent food and a beer 'list' . Five bottled beers from Loch Fyne brewery. Why can the Vic not sell them as well?
One of Scotland's heritage pubs - CAMRA (although now owned by Belhaven)
A regionally important historic interior
heavy: Ice Breaker Pale Ale (seldom on); Belhaven Best ; Punk; Level Head
lager: Peroni; West; Tennents ; Bier Moretti; Flint Eye; Carling
Cider: Strongbow Guinness
Kempock Bar ★
Kempock Bar is another tiny tenement bar with friendly staff. The novelty here is that there is no Guinness. Banquette seating to left and tables in middle. A very friendly locals pub with some bottled beers. Not as large as it looks. Claims to have the best juke box in the west of Scotland
As featured in the book "Still Goin' " by Stevenson & Mackay BOOKS on Pubs
have a pint here
heavy: Calledonian Best
lager: Tennent’s , Carlsberg
Cider: Strongbow
Bottles of brown beer - usually Dom Bar and McEwan’s Champion
The Spinnaker Hotel
The Spinnaker Hotel was the only place in town with Real Ale. The website suggested three are available, but only a poor Greene King was on. However, at a Christmas visit three ales were on. A really nice hotel with three seating rooms all overlooking the river. There is a small patio to front and side. Actual bar counter has a lovely feel to it, very pleasant to sit at and well stocked. Coffee machine and good pub grub.
Real ale: not stocking real ale anymore
Lager: Tennents , Birra Motetti; Peroni; West 4
Pale ale: East Coast; Icebreaker
Heavy: Tartan; Belhaven Best
Cider: Aspall Guinness
Cafe Continental
Cafe Continental is a brilliant bar diner with excellent food and a range of beers. Unfortunately, no Real Ale (bottled Deuchars). Seating area at back has beautiful views across the river and of steamers coming into Gourock pier. Bar comfortable to sit at, although front area can feel chilly. Quiz nights and live music. Prices make it like Glasgow.
heavy: Belhaven Best (bottled Deuchars & Bitter & Twisted)
Joker; Blue Moon
lager: Tennents; Corona; St Mungo; Menabrea; Coors; West ; Bier Moretti
Guinness
Cleats ★
Cleats Bar room has a large curved bar with raised seating area at each end. Lots of seating and space to stand. Picture window overlooks the river just at the pier.
Basement bar downstairs.
have a pint here
heavy: Calledonia Best; Joker
lager: Menabrea; Tennent’s ; Innes & Gunn, Stella; Estrella
Cider: Strongbow Guinness
“If you could discover the right amount of whisky to drink, you would live forever.”
— G Andrew
ANSWER: 20