OK peeps, hold the front page, we had encountered a hill walk where we managed to squeeze in two pubs! One of them would be our usual ‘end of walk’ beverage anyway, but I for one felt spoiled all the same. Kind of knowing we may just squeeze in two juicers today (pun not intended again!), I had opted for a soft drink mid-walk in Bretton, so was looking forward to my pint before resuming driving duties.
We somehow missed the Miners Arms in Eyam, although it was signposted earlier when we entered the village. Never to mind, we could have ended up with the plague anyway goddammit, by the looks of things around there! And so it was decided we would stop somewhere not too far on the way back… the first village we arrived at was Stoney Middleton. But my reluctance to braking at the correct moment, and a small but full car park, means that The Moon Inn will have to wait til another day (shame really given the name). Then we arrived at a crossroads…literally between the A623 and A625 at Calver. The Eyre Arms it was to be (I liked it already, as in my head I had christened it the Hairy Arms). OK, so on approaching the bar this didn’t have that homely, country feel, so it didn’t have the guest beers, but it was a Marstons house (different for us) and still had the usual lager suspects lining up for Sir Edmund (Carling Extra Cold, Fosters) as well as Thatchers Gold for this particular cider lout. The pricing, at £15 for the round (cheers Sir Edmund) seemed to be better for this neck of the woods too (seeing as G had parted with £20 plus earlier)…oh, but then I hadn’t considered that G had opted for a half, nicely served up for him in a ladies glass! And Wu Tang had gone for the soft drink again naturally… and Ramblo had also gone for a half. And no snacks. Wow, not that good on the pricing then? (It was discussed whilst drinking these drinks that maybe we just have to accept drinks aren’t as cheap as they used to be and re-evaluate what we consider expensive beyond the norm)
Time for redemption and as is becoming a post-walk tradition now, L’Autobus wanted chips and you all know the drill… they have to be gourmet and chunky, for their seal of approval! We asked for said chips, but as we hadn’t yet chosen our table outside, we couldn’t order right away (I know, I know “rules is rules”). To ease things for the staff who wouldn’t be able to locate us outside otherwise, we opted for table 50 and relayed this number, sherades style, to Ramblo and Wu Tang through the window. £2.95 each portion was a little higher than ’round our way’ but we couldn’t complain as were all stuffed by the quantity stuffed into each of the two bowls. They were a little too perfectly formed to be hand-cut.(we think) but nobody had a bad word to say and the only disagreement we had was who would finish them off as all five of us were full.
There was little tranquility in the our-front beer garden, being sat right at the crossroads, but at least we got to see all the artics, motorbikes, quad bikes, Edale mountain rescue vans…my goodness I’m getting grumpy! We could have always gone in the beer garden around the back (but it WAS on a slope I tell thee)
Well, if you never try, you never know, and at least they got the Sir Edmund ‘second pint’ seal of approval, it was just all a little ‘standard procedure – follow the template’ for me. Having said that, there was nothing wrong with the Eyre Arms it’s just be we have been spoilt lately with some lovely pubs that have the independent rather than chain feel about them..
Review submitted by
Beaky
Recent Comments