Victoria Hotel, Buckie

Situated in the heart of this pretty coastal village, the Victoria Hotel appears to have been pursposely built, probably around the mid 19th century when the railways would have first started carrying visitors to what was once a bustling fishing village. The village may be a little quieter these days but the Victoria is still servicing the mix of villagers and holidaymakers. The Hotel has 2 bars, a lounge bar on the left as you first pass through the entrance into the lobby and the main bar at the far end down a couple of steps. The main bar is quite pubby with a pool table and dart board (+ several trophies), simple mainly built in furnishings with stoolss at the bar and a small basic TV. The lounge bar is a spacious modern room with its own small bar (ring the bell if no-one is there). It has a minimalist feel with plain décor and some severely contrasting colour schemes. A decent flat-screen TV is the main focus of attention, especially during the recent World Cup. One side has built in leather seating with formally arranged small tables occupying the rest of the bare, polished floor space. The beer range is limited to standard keg bitters, lagers etc and, being whisky country, a selection of about 25 whiskies which seems quite small compared to many other pubs around the area that we came across. As the place was one of my my default locals for the week that I was staying in the village, I did pop in a few times to watch some of the World Cup matches and whilst it was always pretty quiet, it did seem to attract a more mature customer base than the Seafield Inn next door and on the whole felt a lot friendlier and welcoming although it isn't really a place to go out of the way for.