Ypres Castle, Rye

Gah! I was here on a Monday. And a Tuesday. And it wasn't the school summer holidays.

Located down a few steps behind the castle from which the pub takes it’s name, it’s certainly not the easiest spot to find and is therefore likely to be somewhat less touristy than many of Rye’s pubs, but that didn’t stop there being a good crowd in on our recent Saturday lunchtime visit, including a bride and groom who had just got married in the nearby church, with the town crier announcing their arrival. It's split in to two rooms internally that extended back a little further than might be expected. The main bar is to the left, and this is quite traditional in appearance with sanded wooden boards on the floor, black beams on the ceiling, and an extensive collection of beer mats on the timberwork around the bar counter. Seating was a mixture of fitted and padded benches around the perimeter, old church pews and regular chairs. Large bunches of hops hung from the ceiling and a few nautical pictures were dotted around the walls. The smaller room off to the right was a little less rustic perhaps, with quarry stile tiling on the floor, deep blue paintwork on the walls, and further artwork on the walls, much of it for sale. A TV screen at one end was showing the Six Nations, but fortunately the volume was off so this was not too intrusive. Beers on tap were Long Man best Bitter, Rother Valley Blues and Floc Lip Service. The solitary cider meanwhile was Nightingale’s Wild Disco, which was a new one on me. All in all, a pretty decent boozer, worth making the effort to track down.