Black Swan Inn, Seahouses

The Black Swan Inn is hidden away in backstreets, but not too far from the harbour and the main tourist drags. It's a corner pub with a bar on one side and a popular dining room on the other. Indeed, the smell of fish hit us as soon as we entered the premises. As we arrived, the friendly barman was preparing some cocktails, giving me time to decide which of the 3 cask ales I should chose. The house beer is Alnwick Seahouses Blonde & Hadrian Border Farne Island is also a regular. On this occasion, the guest beer was also from Hadrian Border and was They Win Trophies Here, a nod to Newcastle's recent cup final victory over Liverpool. This was a dark beer with a slight nutty taste to it, but happened to be my favourite beer of the day. Keg beers included Beavertown Neck Oil & Anarchy Bail Out. The bar has bare boards. TVs at either end were switched off in favour of music. A fireplace contained a wood burner and there were pictures of fishing boats on the walls. Toilets were unisex, as seems to be coming a common trend these days. Not quite as good (or as popular) as the Olde Ship Inn, but still a good pub in its own right.

Corner pub in a back street although it’s quite posh and more a restaurant with beer than anything else. The main door leads into a unisexual toilet vestibule, through the door ahead are four unlabelled stalls, obviously I left the seat up, then turning left you arrive into a long thin bar with the counter to the right, a corridor on the right leads through to another dining area behind. Banquette seating at square and round tables line each side, some with stools the majority with chairs. It’s an old stone building inside, partially exposed, some walls plastered and other bits tiled or covered in tongue and groove as are the counter and bar back. The far end of the counter houses three pulls with beers from Firebrick (not bad), Alnwick and Hadrian Border, keg tastes are catered for on an horseshoe of six taps with a more upmarket choice, there’s an Estrella solo as well, wine and cocktails would sell more here of course. 1950s rock n roll sounds. The bar staff are constantly servicing the rear dining area so service can be glacial, but you can always watch them constructing cocktails while you wait.

Official site of Black Swan Inn - northcoastcollective.co.uk

Facebook page of Black Swan Inn - www.facebook.com

Official site of Black Swan Inn - northcoastcollective.co.uk

Facebook page of Black Swan Inn - www.facebook.com

A traditional looking, stone built pub located just a couple of minute’s stroll from the centre of this small village, it’s a good size internally being split in to a couple of different rooms, although it looks as though it has had some extensive renovation at some point and isn’t as traditional as one might expect. Flooring appeared to be some type of wood strip, although it was very smooth and I suspect may have been some sort of laminate, whilst the ceilings were freshly plastered with one or two small beams tacked on for effect. A stone fireplace was off to one side, with some ship’s porthole mirrors up above, and there were a few black and white photographs of old ships scattered around. Seating was a mixture of fitted bench seating with pale green padded cushions, regular chairs and stools with burnt orange padded seats. The curved bar counter was clad with old wooden boards, and there was further rough wooden boarding behind the bar. Paintwork was some sort of Farrow & Ball shades of taupe and aqua blue. Whilst all that perhaps sounds fairly traditional, the overall effect felt much more modern, and the music was a tad too loud which really didn’t help me warm to the place. A further room was off to the side, although this looked as though it may have been more of a restaurant and we did not investigate this. Beers on tap were all fairly local with Farne Island, Seahouses Blond and Sea Fret. After that, the cider was a distinctly disappointing Somersby. If they’re supporting local producers, why not stock the excellent Willowtree from Alnwick? Service at the bar was a little slow, with the barman making a large round of cocktails for a group of ladies out in the garden. Overall, nothing really wrong with this pub, but nothing particularly great about it either.