The Boat Inn, Castleford

Facebook page of The Boat Inn - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Boat Inn - www.facebook.com

A long low building next to the river Aire, separated from it by a bund. Inside a three room set up, main bar to the front, a dining area behind and another to the right, there’s a nice little snug opposite the counter in a bay window cum extension. The counter, basic but old, has three low T-Bars with national brands plus a Guinness solo and three pulls although a too cold and treacley Saltaire Blonde was all that was on offer. The decor had a large Bass Yorkshire pub sign of a pub called The Boat and number of old photos of canal folk. The dining areas are up a step or two and obviously furnished with tables and chairs, the main bar just has a couple of tall tables with tall stools with backs. The stripey carpet is remarkably cheap looking for some reason. No signage for the toilets, they’re at the far right hand end .

I was more than a little disappointed with the Boat, which has a pleasant location beside the river, with some seating available on the levee, but the building is not attractive and on closer inspection the interior of the pub is a little the worse for wear, with carpets needing replacing and paintwork redoing. The layout of the interior is odd, with windows seemingly added to the original building in a sort of lateral conservatory-type structure (see photos), which doesn't enhance the external appearance of the building and actually makes the interior rather gloomy. There's another room past the bar, which looks like it has had a few tables removed to comply with Covid distancing, and never replaced, giving an impression that the pub is deserted, especially as the two of us were the only people in this room. I looked around for some redeeming features, but everything seemed to be worn out or fake, or in some instances both. The bar counter doesn't do much to relieve the gloom, with only one of the three hand pumps having any real ale on - and this a warm and sunny bank holiday weekend. At least it was serving a local beer - well, West Yorkshire, anyway: Eagles Crag Brewery of Todmorden. Their Pale Eagle was just about ok, though not to my taste. I spotted a bit of dirt on the base of my glass which at first seemed to be on the outside, but as I got towards the end of my half pint the dirt dislodged itself and started moving about. At this point I gave up, not having time for an argument about it, with the rugby due to kick off shortly at Wheldon Road. Perhaps the best part of this pub visit was the walk back into Castleford.