Thule, Lerwick

Ugly grey waterfront bar that fancies itself as the Shetland’s premier nightspot. The large J shaped interior has had a few quid thrown at it, with a fairly modern quasi-industrial look; metal trackway panelled walls and bar, green wall uppers, tiled floor and televised Kiss music channel. To the right is a pool table, the left a dart board. Talking of bored (in the homophone sense) the barman took two minutes from his laptop to serve me, as the only customer on a cold and windy weekday evening, a pint of Tennants. Bottle options were limited to three BrewDogs. I didn’t get much out of this one but then again, it’s not really aimed at me. 3.5

Housed in an unattractive square building which looks more like an office block and with no name on the outside, only the Tennent’s red T symbol reveals that this is actually a pub. It’s a modern, one room, L-shaped bar with tiled flooring, bright lighting, loud music and lots of standing room, which is obviously aiming to attract a youthful clientele. What seating there is consists of wooden chairs at small circular tables around the sides. There are two pool tables along one leg of the L, plus a darts board and games machine. Tennent’s lager sells at £3.25 a pint, with Carling lager, Stella Artois, Caledonia Best, Guinness, Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted Blond and Gaymer’s cider also on draught. Despite, or perhaps because of, all this, it wasn’t busy on either of the weekday early evenings I called in, although I imagine it gets busier later and at weekends.