Schooner Inn, Seahouses

Back street locals pub, next door to the Black Swan but a complete contrast. Bright lighting from nautical lights, white walls, light grey woodwork and a tartan carpet. Lots of traditional banquette seating at rectangular tables with wooden stools. There’s a big screen on sport at one end. The walls are covered in ship photos and pictures and I mean covered. No arguments with previous reviews, the back part of the L is up a step or two. Two T-bars of very usual suspects and Black Sheep keg bitter, if you like friendly locals and don’t mind the beer then go for it.

A traditional and attractive looking stone built pub located slightly out of the way of the main town centre, and as such it seemed to be very much a local’s pub rather than one frequented by tourists. Internally it’s a good sized, L-shape room with a green tartan carpet on the floor and artex on the ceiling, along with some flimsy grey painted wooden beams which must be decorative rather than structural. The walls too are some sort of rough cream plasterwork, with some khaki green wood panelling in places. Numerous pictures were dotted around the wall, many old black and white photographs of sailing ships, and a number of oil paintings too. Two or three TV’s were up on the wall including a very large one above the fireplace showing sports channels which was a little off-putting, although at least the volume weas off. Seating was a mixture of padded benches around the perimeter as well as stools padded with tartan cloth to match the carpet. An old fireplace was off to one side, but this was clearly disused, at this time of year anyway, with a bench stuck right in front of it. A number of old advertising boards were around the bar, and in a nod to it’s coastal location, besides the aforementioned pictures I also spotted both a model ship and a ship’s wheel. Unfortunately, there were no real ales on tap, although I did spot Greene King IPA, Belhaven’s 80 Shilling and their own Schooner Smooth on keg. The solitary cider meanwhile was Thatcher’s Gold which was a bit of a result, and certainly better than I expected around these parts. Overall, not a bad pub, and certainly more authentic than the slightly contrived feeling Black Swan next door, but it did feel a little basic and the lack of any proper beer might well put people off.

Low ceiling, low lighting, low cask ale count. Just a keg Black Sheep. Pub setup for sports - with horses racing on big screen and multiple screens for football results on a saturday afternoon. Friendly staff. Will be back for some of the Euro Games.