The Castle Inn, Sandown

Good back street locals' pub, yet only just off the sea front. As detailed in previous review, it has a quite bizarre and extensive collection of decorations loosely around a medieval theme, with swords, shields, dragons and much else. At the back is a nice outdoor area with an equal profusion of floral displays. It now has a very good range of beers however and they seemed in top form, so definitely worth dropping in.

Official site of The Castle Inn - sandowncastle.co.uk

Official site of The Castle Inn - sandowncastle.co.uk

Backstreet terraced locals pub. L shaped with pub carpet, plenty of medieval and aged militaria including a full suit of armour – indeed the left side is done out in a pseudo castle dungeon style with unconvincing portcullis and a caged skeleton in the 'exposed' stone wall. Punter entertainment included live horse racing, darts, pub quiz, meat raffle, papers, shut the box, crib and a decent rear garden. Six ales, fairly mainstream; Wychwood Hobgoblin & Gold, Wadworth Swordfish & IPA, Youngs Blonde and a local beer in Yates Holy Joe which was in good nick. Also Lilleys cider for the apple-grapplers. A nice friendly atmosphere and we had an enjoyable 20 minutes in here. A shame about the pedestrian ale choice, a bit more adventure on that front and I’d have had this one down as a ‘must-visit’ on the island.