The Ponsonby Arms, Llangollen

Occupying a Grade 2 listed building close to the centre of Llangollen is The Ponsonby Arms, saved from dereliction several years ago by the owners of The Sun Inn (on the A5 on the other side of town). The Ponsonby Arms is referred to as its sister pub. It’s a rather understated exterior with no hanging pub sign and in need of a lick of paint or two to make it look a bit more noticeable and welcoming. It’s next door to a council car park on the railings of which we see a large tarpaulin banner encouraging us in with the strapline “traditional food and cask ales done well”. On the back of several recent September 2015 visits, I can vouch for the latter. Notably, those using the car park can obtain a free parking token from the pub when ordering food and/or drink. Once inside, we find a comfortable single lounge bar with the servery down the right hand side. It’s a pleasant, but unremarkable interior with, seemingly, no original features of note. One area houses an old style brightly coloured wurlitzer / juke box and another area (curtained off in the evening) apparently used for lunchtime meals. The pub is popular with staff and volunteers from the nearby Llangollen steam railway terminus and a cosy corner is decorated with a collection of old railway photos and prints. The principal attraction here is the extensive range of real ales, probably the best in Llangollen by a country mile. There’s 2 banks of 6 pumps with 2 of the 12 pumps dispensing ciders. Virtually all of the other 10 pumps were in use of each of my three visits, with beers on including Ulverston Elephant, Elland Porter, Goose Eye Chinook, Bollington Long Hop ( Macclesfield ) and Rooster All Star. Notably, beers from 2 Sheffield breweries were on – Kelham Island Pale Rider and WSB Alder, the latter being from the Hillsborough Hotel brewery. Beers sampled were in great form and the pub has made the CAMRA Good Beer Guides in the past few years. It seems churlish to be critical, but I’m going to say that it would have been good to have had at least one Welsh beer being showcased, as was the case with The Sun Inn, where, with a smaller beer range, I had earlier in the evening been able to sample a Purple Moose beer. As expected, beer prices vary according to strength, with Ulverston Elephant ( one of the regular beers ) being £3 and stronger beers such as Kelham Island Pale Rider ( 5.2%) and Elland Porter ( 6.5%) being £ 3.50p and £ 3.60p respectively. A Happy Hour ( rather naffly referred to as a “Hoppy Hour” ) takes place between 6 and 7 pm on Fridays, when there is £1 off all pints of cask ale. Notably, and unusually, there doesn’t appear to be any such promotions on other days of the week, when you might ordinarily have expected a greater need to get people through the door. Tuesday night is quiz night and Monday night features “an evening with the Ladies Singing Group” – a small group of ladies of advancing years singing, without accompaniment, a medley of assorted well known songs. There is also some advertising, notably on the menu, for music events at The Sun Inn. Although close to the town centre, it is on what would appear to be the “wrong” side of the bridge to pick up much passing trade from visitors to this attractive town with, in consequence, much more of a local feel than perhaps you might expect. It’s a friendly welcoming place and, although they appear to have difficulty in getting staff, those I came across were helpful and eager to please. You should definitely seek this one out when in town.