The Farmers Arms, Haverfordwest

The Farmers Arms is a traditional back street pub and was until recently the only real public house in the City of St Davids, with all the other venues being hotels. But with the Grove and the City Inn open to the public and the new Bishops Free House round the corner it is now one of four/five places dispensing beer. And there is a danger that The Farmers could be overlooked due to the more prominently placed Bishops and it not being particularly inviting from the outside. But that would be a real shame as this is a very good traditional pub and probably the best place for a beer in the City. Externally it’s a decent enough stone façade but not really much to draw you in except for the strange pub sign. But once inside you find a multi roomed stone walled pub. The Farmers consists of three rooms, the top room on the right hand side being more set up as a dining area, a small square room on the left set up as a games room with a pool table and then beyond this a very pleasant snug type space with a large open fireplace. Each area has a fair collection of period B&W photos of St Davids and assorted pub memorabilia to give then a bit of character and cosiness. And as the Farmers is open all year round I can imagine the snug area is an excellent place in the winter months when the fire is going. The toilets are in a traditional outhouse and beyond this there is a very pleasant outside patio area affording views of the cathedral (as long as you are standing), and is south facing, which makes it a decent suntrap on a fine day. Unusually there is also a small outside bar just for the patio area and it had the same three real ales on that could be found in the main bar. Like all the places in St Davids, The Farmers has a decent home cooked food menu, although we were only here for the beer so we didn’t try it. And on the beer front there was Felinfoel Double Dragon, Rhymney Ale and Batemanns Summer Swallow and the last two were very well kept pints. So if you can only make one pub when visiting St Davids, my recommendation would be to make it The Farmers Arms.

Lively locals pub. Real Ale. Dogs welcome.