Balmoral Hotel, Moffat

The Balmoral has a public bar which can be accessed via the front door of the hotel, but is perhaps more naturally approached through the arch on the left which would have been where horses would have found their stables. There is now a decent sized beer garden, with a back door leading to the bar. This room has been opened out from several much smaller ones by the novel expedient of stripping the coverings off some stud walls but leaving the skeletons painted white. There's one hand pump on the bar, with quite a decent Greene King IPA - it had "just gone on" and was a little lively. It would have been nice to see a local beer, but I have to say that you could really taste the hops in this beer; I'm sure there'll be a reprimand for someone at the brewery if the GK management or accountants read this. It was quite busy at the time of my mid-evening visit, and it was pleasant enough to sit outside.